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MEASURES OF INDUSTRY STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE

This section provides details of the number of operating businesses in Australian industries and some indicators of their economic and financial performance in 2003-04. Business activities classified to ANZSIC Division K, Finance and insurance, and Division M, Government administration and defence are excluded from the statistics. In addition, entities classified to the general government institutional sector are excluded for most industries. This exclusion particularly affects data presented for the Education and Health and community services industries, where details relate only to private sector businesses. The term 'total selected industries' is used to refer to the aggregate of the industries included in this section.

Table 13.7 shows the number of operating businesses, in 2003-04, categorised by type of business based on employing status and employment size group. Small businesses are defined as those employing businesses with employment of less than 20 persons, medium businesses as those employing businesses with employment of 20 to less than 200 persons, and large businesses as those employing businesses with employment of 200 or more persons.

The total number of businesses operating in the total selected industries at the end of June 2004 was 2,265,600, consisting of 800,400 employing businesses and 1,465,200 non-employing businesses. Of the employing businesses, there were 752,700 small businesses (94% of total employing businesses), 44,900 medium businesses and 2,800 large businesses. The Property and business services industry had the largest number of operating businesses in 2003–04 (636,700), followed by Construction (365,800) and Agriculture, forestry and fishing (235,400).

13.7 INDUSTRY STRUCTURE(a) - 2003-04
	Type of business				Total
	Employing			Non-employing
ANZSIC Division	Small(b)	Medium(c)	Large(d)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	74,483	1,386	28	159,541	235,438
Mining	2,502	209	83	5,100	7,894
Manufacturing	56,055	6,608	635	68,424	131,723
Electricity, gas and water supply	732	132	53	1,667	2,584
Construction	108,437	2,498	118	254,728	365,781
Wholesale trade	42,648	3,292	232	43,465	89,637
Retail trade	115,704	8,036	289	111,226	235,254
Accommodation, cafes and restaurants	34,819	4,309	133	21,175	60,436
Transport and storage	34,898	1,680	159	86,334	123,071
Communication services	7,690	161	18	20,295	28,164
Property and business services	159,361	7,893	478	468,943	636,674
Education(e)	8,674	1,904	96	22,050	32,725
Health and community services(e)	48,900	4,669	345	63,564	117,478
Cultural and recreational services	18,836	815	62	61,103	80,817
Personal and other services	38,955	1,296	72	77,562	117,885
Total selected industries	752,695	44,890	2,799	1,465,178	2,265,562
(a) Classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 1993 edition. Excludes Finance and insurance, and Government administration and defence. (b) Total employment less than 20 persons. (c) Total employment in the range 20-199 persons. (d) Total employment of 200 or more persons. (e) Private sector businesses.
Source: Australian Industry, 2003-04 (8155.0).

Indicators such as sales and service income, operating profit before tax (OPBT) and profit margin can be used to assess business and industry performance. Sales and service income comprises sales of goods, income from services and rent, leasing and hiring income. OPBT is calculated as total income minus total expenses plus changes in inventories. Profit margin refers to the percentage of total income available as OPBT. Table 13.9 and figure 13.10 present these measures for selected industries for 2003-04. The Manufacturing industry had the highest sales and service income ($316b), followed by the Wholesale and Retail trade industries ($310b and $291b respectively). The highest OPBT was earned by businesses in Property and business services industry ($43b), Manufacturing ($24b), and Mining and Construction ($16b each). 13.9 INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE(a), Income and profit - 2003-04 ANZSIC Division Sales and service income Operating profit before tax $m $m Agriculture, forestry and fishing 52,432 4,756 Mining 60,414 15,886 Manufacturing 316,042 24,115 Electricity, gas and water supply 45,415 6,367 Construction 157,230 15,735 Wholesale trade 310,397 13,679 Retail trade 291,289 11,278 Accommodation, cafes and restaurants 45,970 2,749 Transport and storage 82,900 3,535 Communication services 40,893 7,067 Property and business services 209,220 43,038 Education(b) 8,383 1,278 Health and community services(b) 40,558 7,359 Cultural and recreational services 31,906 4,173 Personal and other services 20,010 3,071 Total selected industries 1,713,058 164,085 (a) Classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 1993 edition. Excludes Finance and insurance, and Government administration and defence. (b) Private sector businesses. Source: Australian Industry, 2003-04 (8155.0). Although the Manufacturing industry had the highest sales and service income of all of the selected industries in 2003-04, it recorded a low profit margin (7%) compared to other industries. The Mining industry had the highest profit margin (24%) of all industries shown, followed by the Property and business services (18%) and Communication services (17%) industries. The smallest profit margin (4%) was returned by the Retail trade industry.