INDUSTRY
In 2005-06, the largest industry contributing to GDP (at basic prices excluding ownership of dwellings) was Property & business services which contributed 12.4%. Manufacturing was the second largest industry and contributed 11.0%. The rankings of the two industries has switched since 1993-94 when Manufacturing contributed 15.1% and Property & business services contributed 10.0%. Property & business services overtaking Manufacturing as the largest industry contributing to GDP is due to a number of factors. Over the past three to four years, Manufacturing has continued to face pressures from increased import penetration and plant closures in various subdivisions of the industry.
The firms contained within Property and business services are relatively diverse in the types of services they provide. For example, Real estate agents, Consulting Engineering services, Computer services and Secretarial services are all included as part of Property and business services. The overall growth in this industry has been related to a move towards the expansion in the services provided by Australian firms.
The Construction industry has increased its contribution to GDP over the period from 5.8% to 7.0%. Construction gross value added has increased by almost 60% since 2000-01 as a result of strong Dwelling and Non-dwelling construction investment. For more information please refer to Expenditure on GDP.
The current global 'mining boom' has created a great deal of interest in the Australian Mining industry. The profit (Gross operating surplus and Gross mixed income) of the Mining industry doubled between 2002-03 and 2005-06 (see table 57 for more details). Over the same period the investment undertaken by Mining increased by 196.3% (see table 90 for more details). However, over the same period the Mining gross value added in volume terms fell by 2.5%.
These results occur because the profit and investment measures are in current prices while the gross value added is in volume terms. The prices of Mining commodities increased significantly over the period, while the volume of output fell slightly. See Prices in the National Accounts for more information on commodities prices.
The fall in the volume of Mining output over this period has been mainly driven by falls in Oil. Annual production of oil has fallen 27.6% (see Table 84 for more details) since 2002-03. The volume of output of other commodities remained steady or increased over the same period.
For information on the longer term changes to the make up of Australia's Industry refer to 100 Years of change in Australian Industry (Feature article).
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