8226.0 - Electricity, Gas, Water and Sewerage Operations, Australia
, 1998-99
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 04/09/2000
Page tools:
 Print Page
 Print All
| |||||
|
MEDIA RELEASE
Employment Levels Drop for Electricity Supply Industry Employment in the electricity supply industry fell 6 per cent to 32,701 in 1998-99, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today. Almost all States experienced a decrease in employment, mainly due to restructuring, although in New South Wales the main causes were outsourcing, productivity improvements and redundancies. In contrast, Queensland experienced a rise in employment of 1 per cent as additional generation capacity was developed. While employment was down, profits were up, with profits in the industry increasing by 29 per cent to $3.1 billion (b) in 1998-99. The structural reforms occurring within the industry have increased both income and expenditure. Sales of goods and services rose by 12 per cent to $23.2b in 1998-99, with Queensland accounting for nearly half the increase. Industry value-added for the electricity industry increased by 4 per cent, reaching $9.7b. Net capital expenditure increased nationally by 11 per cent to $2.4b, again mainly due to developments in Queensland. In 1998-99 total assets in the electricity industry increased by 2 per cent to $76.3b while total liabilities increased by 4 per cent to $44.0b. These changes have resulted in a marginal decrease in net worth of $150 million (m) to $32.3b. The gas supply industry recorded an increase in operating profit of 15 per cent to $819m in 1998-99. At the same time employment rose by 12 per cent to 3,073 people at 30 June 1999 and wages and salaries rose accordingly by 20 per cent to $183m. However, the increases were mainly attributable to industry restructuring rather than the creation of new jobs. Redundancies were again reported in some quarters of the industry, and since 1994 employment in the gas supply industry has fallen by 57 per cent (or 4,000 people). Sales of goods and services rose by 22 per cent to $5.0b mainly due to the restructuring occurring within the industry. Net capital expenditure decreased by 37 per cent to $160m. Industry value-added increased by 16 per cent, rising to $1.4b in 1998-99. Total assets in the gas supply industry increased by 37 per cent to $8.3b while net worth increased by 5 per cent to $1.5b. Return on funds decreased from 22 per cent to 15 per cent while the debts-to-assets ratio increased from 77 per cent to 82 per cent and acquisitions to disposals decreased from 30.8 times to 7.8 times. Information is also available for water and sewerage operations in 1998-99. Further details are in Electricity, Gas, Water and Sewerage Operations, Australia (cat. no. 8226.0) available from ABS bookshops. The summary of the publication is available on this site. If you wish to purchase a copy of this publication, contact the ABS Bookshop in your capital city. Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
|
||||