Turnover falls for 7 of 13 industries in July

Seven of the 13 selected industries reported falls in business turnover in July, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics, said the Electricity, gas, water and waste services industry reported the largest monthly fall in business turnover.

“The 14.9 per cent fall in turnover for Electricity, gas, water and waste services can be attributed to a large decrease in wholesale electricity prices. Turnover in this industry has been volatile since the energy crisis in mid-2022.”

Arts and recreation recorded the second largest fall in turnover (-6.1 per cent). Manufacturing businesses also saw a drop (-5.0 per cent) with lower turnover seen across precious metal manufacturing and alumina production.

Meanwhile, the Administrative and support services (+3.8 per cent) and Construction industries (+2.0 per cent) recorded the largest rises in turnover.

Compared to July 2022, eight of the 13 industries included in the indicator rose in contrast to the monthly falls. Rises were led by Construction (+19.2 per cent), Other services (+14.3 per cent) and Administration and support services (+10.9 per cent).

Annually, the largest falls were in Electricity, gas, water and waste services (-22.1 per cent) and Mining (-15.5 per cent). This was partly driven by lower commodity prices such as coal and natural gas.

The ABS would like to thank the businesses whose data helped produce these statistics.