Australian Small Business Statistics

At June 30 2019 there were 2,375,753 actively trading businesses in the Australian economy. Three industries accounted for more than half of total annual growth in businesses, these were: · Construction · Transport, postal and warehousing · Professional, scientific and technical services Small businesses make a significant contribution to the Australian economy, accounting for slightly less than one-half of private sector industry employment and contributing approximately one-third of private sector industry value added in 2010–11. The construction and the professional, scientific and technical services industry subsectors each contributed around 16 per cent of the small business contribution to services industry value-added, and the rental, hiring and real estate services subsector contributed over 15 per cent. Using the employment measure of small business, there were 2,065,523 small businesses in Australia employing less than 19 people, accounting for 97 per cent of all Australian businesses by employee size. There were 51,000 medium-sized businesses, employing 20 to 199 employees, which is 2.4 per cent of all firms. Only 3,700 Australian firms employed over 200 people in 2015, meaning that large businesses account for only 0.2 per cent of all Australian businesses. Australian Businesses continue to play an important part in our economy. Each year, market research company IBISWorld compiles a list of the largest companies in Australia, according to their revenue figures from the previous financial year. For 2017, the top 1000 companies recorded $1.94 trillion in revenue and accounted for 28% of all trade in Australia. This revenue figure, however, was a two percent decline in comparison to 2016. The majority of the companies within this years top 10 have kept their previous positions, with Wesfarmers taking out the number one spot once again with a revenue of $69 billion. Wesfarmers’ revenue had grown 3.8% since the previous year. Meanwhile, IBISWorld highlighted the growing interest in healthy eating as an influence contributing to an increase in revenue for the fruit and vegetable wholesaling industry. Within the top 10, BHP jumped up the list from eighth to fourth place in terms of revenue for the 2017 financial year, with a 23.8% growth in revenue. BHP’s revenue at $39 billion overtook its competitor Rio Tinto (sixth place) which recorded a 3.2% decline in revenue. BHP held the number one spot in 2015.