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INTRODUCTION

1 This publication contains estimates of income from sales of goods and services, wages and salaries (from the December quarter 2001 issue), company profits, and the book value of inventories for selected industries in Australia. The series have been compiled from data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Indicators Survey (formerly known as the Quarterly Economic Activity Survey). The survey, which was fully implemented in the March quarter 2001, collects data from private businesses only.


PREVIOUS DATA SOURCES

2 Prior to March quarter 2001, data on sales, inventories and company profits were collected in the Survey of Inventories, Sales and Services and the Survey of Company Profits. The data from these surveys have been used to compile the historical estimates in this publication. From March quarter 2002, the Quarterly Business Indicators Survey replaced the private sector component of the Survey of Employment and Earnings. However, as the measures of wages and salaries in the two surveys are different (refer to paragraph 37), data from the Survey of Employment and Earnings has not been used to produce historical estimates for this publication. For more information on the introduction of the Quarterly Business Indicators Survey, see Information Paper: Improvements to Australian Bureau of Statistics Quarterly Business Indicators (cat. no. 5677.0).


SCOPE AND COVERAGE

3 The Quarterly Business Indicators Survey, like most ABS economic collections, is drawn from the ABS Business Register. The register provides a list of employing businesses, and it is primarily based on registrations to the Australian Taxation Office’s Pay As You Go Withholding (PAYGW) scheme (and prior to 1 July 2000 its Group Employer scheme). The frame is updated quarterly to take account of new businesses, businesses which have ceased employing, changes in employment levels, changes in industry and other general business changes.

4 Businesses which have ceased employing are identified when the Australian Taxation Office cancels their PAYGW registration (or previously their Group Employer registration). In addition, from September quarter 1999, businesses which did not remit under the Group Employer scheme for the previous five quarters were removed from the frame. A similar process will be adopted to remove businesses who do not remit under the PAYGW scheme.

5 The scope excludes public sector business units (i.e. all departments, authorities and other organisations owned and controlled by Commonwealth, State and Local Government).

6 The statistics in this publication exclude non-employing businesses. Though there are a substantial number of these businesses, it is expected that they would not contribute significantly to the estimates, although the impact would vary from industry to industry and from data item to data item.

7 Inventories data are not collected from businesses with fewer than 20 employees, as smaller businesses generally have difficulty in providing accurate quarterly information on the level of their inventories. Estimates for these businesses are derived by applying sales information to an estimated inventories to sales ratio. The inventories to sales ratio is based on data from the current quarter for medium sized businesses, and benchmarked to data from the annual Economic Activity Survey for small businesses. Investigations indicate that this technique produces estimates of inventories of sufficient quality.

8 The industries, classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 1993 (cat. no. 1292.0), included in this publication are:

Industries		Income from sales of goods and services	Wages and salaries	Company profits	Inventories
Mining (Division B)		Y	Y	Y	Y
Manufacturing (Division C)		Y	Y	Y	Y
Electricity, gas and water supply (Division D)
	Electricity and gas supply (36)	Y	Y	Y	Y
	Water supply (37)	Y	Y	Y	N
Construction (Division E)		Y	Y	Y	N
Wholesale trade (Division F)		Y	Y	Y	Y
Retail trade (Division G)		Y	Y	Y	Y
Accommodation, cafes and restaurants (Division H)		Y	Y	Y	Y
Transport and storage (Division I)		Y	Y	Y	N
Communication services (Division J)		Y	Y	Y	N
Finance and insurance (Division K)
	Deposit taking financiers (732)	N	Y	N	N
	Other financiers (733)(a)	Y	Y	Y	N
	Financial asset investors (734)(a)	Y	Y	Y	N
	Other insurance (742)	N	Y	N	N
	Services to finance and insurance (75)	Y	Y	Y	N
Property and business services (Division L)		Y	Y	Y	N
Education (Division N)		N	Y	N	N
Health and community services (Division O)		N	Y	N	N
Cultural and recreational services (Division P)		Y	Y	Y	N
Personal and other services (Division Q)
	Personal services (95)	Y	Y	Y	N
	Other services (96)	N	Y	N	N

• the national accounts estimates are benchmarked to annual supply and use tables which are based on annual Economic Activity Survey and taxation data;

• the national accounts estimates include estimates for businesses classified to industries not in scope of the Quarterly Business Indicators Survey;

• the national accounts estimates include estimates for non-employing businesses, which are outside the scope of Quarterly Business Indicators Survey;

• the national accounts estimates for gross operating surplus of private non-financial corporations include the profits of all businesses whereas company profits estimates in this publication only include incorporated businesses with 20 or more employees;

• the national accounts estimates for gross operating surplus of private non-financial corporations are after deduction of the inventory valuation adjustment which measures the portion of income attributable to holding gains or losses resulting from inventory valuation practices;

• the national accounts estimates for gross operating surplus of private non-financial corporations do not include deductions relating to interest, net land rent and natural resource payments;

• in many cases, the processes used to seasonally adjust national accounts estimates are different to those used for the seasonally adjusted estimates in this publication.

• Australian National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 5216.0)
• Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (cat. no. 5206.0)
• Business Operations and Industry Performance, Australia (cat. no. 8140.0)
• Experimental Estimates: Australian Industry, a State Perspective, Australia, 1998-99 (cat. no. 8156.0)
• Information Paper: Introduction of Chain Volume Measures in the Australian National Accounts (cat. no. 5248.0)
• Information Paper: Improvements to ABS Quarterly Business Indicators (cat. no. 5677.0)
• Manufacturing Production, Australia (cat. no. 8301.0)
• Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, Australia (cat. no. 5625.0)
• Retail Trade, Australia (cat. no. 8501.0)
• Wage and Salary Earners, Public Sector, Australia (cat. no. 6428.0)