MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Mar qtr 19	Dec qtr 18 to Mar qtr 19	Mar qtr 18 to Mar qtr 19
		$m	% change	% change
TREND ESTIMATES(a)
Value of work done
	Building	29 752.8	-0.9	-1.2
	Residential	18 802.5	-2.4	-2.6
	Non-residential	10 943.3	1.6	1.4
	Engineering	20 972.4	-4.0	-12.2
	Total construction	50 661.1	-2.4	-6.1
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES(a)
Value of work done
	Building	29 835.1	-0.4	-1.0
	Residential	18 732.0	-2.5	-3.2
	Non-residential	11 103.1	3.6	3.1
	Engineering	20 952.8	-3.9	-12.4
	Total construction	50 787.9	-1.9	-6.0
(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

MARCH KEY POINTS


VALUE OF WORK DONE, CHAIN VOLUME MEASURES

TOTAL CONSTRUCTION

• The trend estimate for total construction work done fell 2.4% in the March quarter 2019.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for total construction work done fell 1.9% to $50,787.9m in the March quarter.

BUILDING WORK DONE

• The trend estimate for total building work done fell 0.9% in the March quarter 2019.
• The trend estimate for non-residential building work done rose 1.6% and residential building work fell 2.4%.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate of total building work done fell 0.4% to $29,835.1m in the March quarter.

ENGINEERING WORK DONE

• The trend estimate for engineering work done fell 4.0% in the March quarter.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for engineering work done fell 3.9% to $20,952.8m in the March quarter.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2019	28 August 2019
September 2019	27 November 2019
December 2020	26 February 2020
March 2020	27 May 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 26 June 2019 and in Building Activity, Australia (cat.no. 8752.0) on 10 July 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

This release includes revisions to both the Building Activity and Engineering Construction Survey. Building Activity data have been revised back to September 2014 and Engineering Construction data have been revised back to June 2017.

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.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.