DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Dec qtr 18	Sep qtr 18 to Dec qtr 18	Dec qtr 17 to Dec qtr 18
		$m	% change	% change
TREND ESTIMATES(a)
Value of work done
	Building	29 826.8	-1.2	1.6
	Residential	19 186.0	-1.7	2.1
	Non-residential	10 642.0	-0.1	0.6
	Engineering	21 826.9	-4.0	-5.9
	Total construction	51 602.6	-2.5	-1.8
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES(a)
Value of work done
	Building	29 599.6	-1.7	1.5
	Residential	18 880.7	-3.6	2.1
	Non-residential	10 718.9	1.9	0.4
	Engineering	21 492.8	-5.0	-7.8
	Total construction	51 092.3	-3.1	-2.6
(a) Reference year for Chain Volume Measures is 2016-17.

Value of construction work done, Chain Volume Measures - Trend estimates

Value of building work done, Chain Volume Measures - Trend estimates

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


VALUE OF WORK DONE, CHAIN VOLUME MEASURES

TOTAL CONSTRUCTION

• The trend estimate for total construction work done fell 2.5% in the December quarter 2018.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for total construction work done fell 3.1% to $51,092.3m in the December quarter.

BUILDING WORK DONE

• The trend estimate for total building work done fell 1.2% in the December quarter.
• The trend estimate for non-residential building work fell 0.1% and residential building work fell 1.7%.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate of total building work done fell 1.7% to $29,599.6m in the December quarter.

ENGINEERING WORK DONE

• The trend estimate for engineering work done fell 4.0% in the December quarter.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for engineering work done fell 5.0% to $21,492.8m in the December quarter.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2019	22 May 2019
June 2019	28 August 2019
September 2019	27 November 2019
December 2020	26 February 2020

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

This publication provides an early indication of trends in building and engineering construction activity. The data are estimates based on a response rate of approximately 85% of the value of both building and engineering work done during the quarter. More comprehensive and updated results will be released in Engineering Construction Activity, Australia (cat. no. 8762.0) on 27 March 2019 and in Building Activity, Australia (cat.no. 8752.0) on 10 April 2019.

A readily printable (PDF) publication is no longer released for this and future issues. Headline data items are presented in HTML format. Data series released in the Time Series Spreadsheets are maintained and produced to the same timetable currently in place for this release.


DATA NOTES

Trend estimates should be used with caution due to the volatility caused by large engineering projects. For more details on trend estimates, please see paragraphs 24 to 26 of the explanatory notes.

Mining projects tend to be complex in structure and comprise a number of different investment activities including exploration, engineering construction, plant and equipment and buildings. A feature article released in the March 2012 issue of Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, Australia (cat. no. 5625.0) provides a summary of the conceptual basis of the relevant ABS publications that measure investment in Australia, using a hypothetical mining project to illustrate how this investment is reflected in ABS data.

Engineering Construction Activity is reported by sector of ownership with work classified according to whether it is being done for the private or public sector. Users should be aware that there are occasions where a project may change ownership during construction phase. On these occasions the Engineering construction activity associated with such a project will move sector effective from the time of the ownership change.


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