Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 21—Service industries 749
Introduction
The service industries sector is the most
significant and fastest growing component
of the Australian economy. This chapter presents
an overview of the sector and provides a range of
statistical information for a selection of service
industries, with a particular focus on those that
have recently been surveyed as part of the ABS
rotating program of service industries collections.
For the purposes of this chapter, the service
industries sector has been defined as all
industries other than the goods producing
industries (agriculture, mining, manufacturing,
electricity, construction, and gas and water
supply). In terms of the Australian and New
Zealand Standard Industrial Classification
(ANZSIC), the service industries cover wholesale
and retail trade, accommodation, cafes and
restaurants, transport and storage,
communication services, finance and insurance,
property and business services, government
administration and defence, education, health
and community services, cultural and recreational
services, and personal and other services.
Overview
The service industries sector is the largest
component of the Australian economy in terms of
number of businesses, employment and gross
value added.
Of the estimated 1,107,000 private sector
businesses in Australia in 1998–99, some 744,000
or about two-thirds were in the service industries.
For small businesses (those with less than 20
employees), the proportions are similar, service
industries accounting for 68% of just over one
million small businesses in Australia (table 21.1).
In terms of industry output or gross value added,
the service industries are dominant, accounting
for 67% of the gross value added of all industries
in 1998–99 (table 21.2). Within the service
industries sector, output in chain volume terms
(measuring ‘real’ output unaffected by price
change) increased by 27% in the period from
1993–94 to 1998–99, outstripping output growth
in the goods producing sector by 11 percentage
points over the same period. This resulted in a
small increase in the share of total output for the
service industries, from 64.7% in 1993–94 to
66.7% in 1998–99.
The largest contributor to the service industries
sector in 1998–99 was the property and business
services industry, which accounted for 18% of the
gross value added of the service industries sector
and 12% of the gross value added of all industries.
The next largest, within the service industries
sector, was finance and insurance services which
accounted for 11% of the gross value added of
the sector.
In the five year period from 1993–94 to 1998–99,
service industries gross value added increased on
average by 5% per year in real terms. In contrast,
the gross value added of the goods producing
industries increased by an annual rate of 3%.
The communication services industry recorded
the largest percentage increase in output in the
five year period with an increase of 61% in real
terms, the equivalent of an annual growth rate of
10%. The next highest growth rate was recorded
by the wholesale trade industry with a 39%
increase in output over the five year period, an
annual growth rate of nearly 7%. The three areas
in the service industries sector where growth in
real terms was lowest in the period 1993–94 to
1998–99 were government administration and
defence (7%), education (8%), and health and
community services (16%).
As table 21.3 shows, in terms of employment the
service industries sector is even more dominant,
accounting for 74% of total employment for all
industries in 1998–99, compared with 71% in
1993–94. Total employment in the service
industries sector in 1998–99 was 6,355,700
persons.
21.1 NUMBER OF BUSINESSES—1998–99
Industry
Unit
Small
businesses
Other
businesses Total
Goods producing industries ’000 337.4 25.5 362.9
Service industries ’000 714.1 30.1 744.2
Total all industries ’000 1 051.5 55.6 1 107.1
Businesses in service industries as a percentage of all businesses % 67.9 54.1 67.2
Source: Small Business in Australia, 1999 (1321.0).