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TECHNICAL NOTE 3 DATA COMPARABILITY AND REVISIONS TO 2006-07, 2007-08 AND 2008-09 ESTIMATES


INTRODUCTION

1 This section discusses the comparability of estimates across time.

2 To provide comparability with the 2009-10 estimates, the estimates for 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 presented in this publication have been revised to take account of various changes in collection design, estimation methodology, and data item definitions.

3 Revisions were made for a number of reasons, the most significant being improvements to the methodology used to calculate estimates. In addition, new and updated information received from businesses has been used to improve previous estimates, a number of businesses have been reclassified within the ANZSIC industry classification, and there has been a change in the derivation of industry value added.


SOURCES OF REVISIONS

Methodological Improvements

4 The Economic Activity Survey, from which Australian Industry is derived, has implemented an updated size variable for stratification. This ensures that businesses are more homogeneously grouped, leading to lower sampling error in estimation.

5 To ensure that estimates over time are comparable, data has been revised for the 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 reference years to use the updated size variable. In some cases this has led to considerable changes to published estimates. Table 2.1 Business Size has been particularly affected, with most of the large revisions occurring in the "Small" business size category.

6 In addition to the change in the variables used for the survey design, the auxiliary information used for the Business Activity Statement (BAS) Stream for 2008-09 was updated to account for more complete information provided from ATO Business Activity Statements for the 2008-09 year. The use of more complete auxiliary information has resulted in small revisions to this data stream for 2008-09. See Technical Note 1 for more information on the Business Activity Statement (BAS) Stream.


New Information from businesses

7 When analysing data for publication in Australian Industry, the ABS engages in direct contact with businesses. This helps to improve inaccurate reporting in the current year. In some cases, new or updated information is received from businesses that can be applied to previous years. Where relevant, the ABS has incorporated this updated information in the revised estimates for the 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 reference years.


Reclassification of businesses

8 The ABS maintains and updates the structure of large businesses, and seeks to portray the most accurate picture of the Australian economy by aligning business activities with the appropriate ANZSIC classification. From time to time businesses are reclassified, causing shifts in the data between ANZSIC categories. When the reclassification represents a real world change before the current reference period, the ABS has backcast the changes into estimates for the 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 reference years.


Derivation Changes

9 The derivation of Industry Value Added (IVA) has changed slightly in Australian Industry, in order to better align with the concept of Gross Value Added that is published in Australian System of National Accounts (cat. no. 5204.0). 30% of the value of insurance premiums has been added to the intermediate input expense component of IVA. This represents the service charge component of insurance premiums, and is derived as premiums paid less expected claims incurred, which on average is estimated to be 30% of premiums paid. This change has resulted in a slight rise in intermediate expenses and thus a slight fall in IVA across the economy.

10 This change has been applied to estimates for the 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 reference years.


EXTENT OF REVISIONS

11 The table below shows the percentage change between the previously published estimates for 2008-09 and those presented in this release, for a number of key data items.

Percentage change in 2008-09 estimates due to revisions
	Total income	Total expenses	Industry value added	Sales and service income	Wages and salaries
	%	%	%	%	%
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	-0.8	-1.4	-0.6	-0.8	-2.2
Mining	0.3	0.9	-0.1	0.4	3.3
Manufacturing	-2.5	-2.8	-1.2	-2.5	-1.4
Electricity, gas, water and waste services	2.4	4.4	-0.5	3.8	3.9
Construction	-0.4	1.3	-5.2	-0.5	1.8
Wholesale trade	4.3	5.4	-4.8	4.4	-0.5
Retail trade	3.9	2.5	9.0	3.9	1.7
Accommodation and food services	-0.1	-2.4	7.1	-0.1	8.7
Transport, postal and warehousing	-3.5	-4.1	-3.8	-3.2	-5.6
Information media and telecommunications	-0.5	0.7	-2.9	-0.6	-2.0
Rental, hiring and real estate services	-1.0	0.6	-3.2	-2.1	-1.3
Professional, scientific and technical services	0.3	0.8	-2.7	0.3	-2.1
Administrative and support services	-1.4	1.0	-3.8	-1.0	-0.3
Public administration and safety (private)	0.3	0.2	-	0.3	-
Education and training (private)	8.3	3.8	11.0	11.7	4.9
Health care and social assistance (private)	0.2	-0.1	-1.7	0.1	-1.6
Arts and recreation services	-1.7	-2.0	0.2	-1.7	0.4
Other services	-0.1	0.2	2.8	-0.2	3.3
Total selected industries(a)	0.6	0.9	-1.0	0.7	-
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Excludes Division K Financial and insurance services. See the Glossary for the full definition.