Business Indicators, Business Impacts of COVID-19 methodology

This publication provides information on the incidence and nature of impacts due to COVID-19, as experienced by businesses operating in Australia. This is the third release of data from the survey.

This release forms part of a suite of additional products that the ABS is producing to measure the impacts of COVID-19 on the Australian economy and society.

For more information refer to https://www.abs.gov.au/covid19.

The COVID-19 Business Indicators Survey includes information on the following industries classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) 2006:

• Mining (Division B)
• Manufacturing (Division C)
• Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services (Division D)
• Construction (Division E)
• Wholesale Trade (Division F)
• Retail Trade (Division G)
• Accommodation and Food Services (Division H)
• Transport, Postal and Warehousing (Division I)
• Information Media and Telecommunications (Division J)
• Finance and Insurance (Division K, excluding ANZSIC class 6330, Superannuation Funds)
• Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services (Division L)
• Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (Division M)
• Administrative and Support Services (Division N)
• Education and Training (Division P)
• Health Care and Social Assistance (Division Q)
• Arts and Recreation Services (Division R)
• Other Services (Division S)
   

The scope excludes public sector business units (i.e. all departments, authorities and other organisations owned and controlled by Commonwealth, State and Local Government).

The survey includes Employing and Non-Employing Units on the ABS Business Register. However, micro non-employing businesses are excluded. These are very small units on the ABS Business Register, by standard measures of size.

The statistical unit used to represent businesses, and for which statistics are reported, is the Australian Business Number (ABN) unit, in most cases. The ABN unit is the business unit which has registered for an ABN, and thus appears on the ATO administered Australian Business Register. This unit is suitable for ABS statistical needs when the business is simple in structure.

For more significant and diverse businesses where the ABN unit is not suitable for ABS statistical needs, the statistical unit used is the Type of Activity Unit (TAU). A TAU is comprised of one or more business entities, sub-entities or branches of a business entity within an Enterprise Group that can report production and employment data for similar economic activities. When a minimum set of data items is available, a TAU is created which covers all the operations within an industry subdivision (and the TAU is classified to the relevant subdivision of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC)). Where a business cannot supply adequate data for each industry, a TAU is formed which contains activity in more than one industry subdivision and the TAU is classified to the predominant ANZSIC subdivision. Further details about the ABS economic statistical units used in this survey, and in other ABS economic surveys (both sample surveys and censuses), can be found in Chapter 2 of the Standard Economic Sector Classifications of Australia (SESCA) 2008 (cat. no. 1218.0).

The survey is based on a random sample of approximately 2,000 units stratified by industry and derived employment size. These businesses form a sub-sample of those included in the March quarter 2020, New Capital Expenditure Survey.

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) has been developed for use in both countries for the production and analysis of industry statistics. For more information, users are referred to Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (cat. no. 1292.0).

When interpreting these results, please note that there may be systematic bias in these estimates that statistical procedures would not correct. In particular, estimates of the prevalence of adversely affected businesses may be an underestimate if businesses have typically not responded because they have been adversely affected by COVID-19.

The collection was conducted through a telephone based business survey between 22 April and 28 April 2020, with a sample size of 2,014 businesses. The final response rate was 60%.