SECTION ONE: COUNTS OF AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS OPERATORS BY SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS, 2012

OVERVIEW

The data presented in Section One of this publication were sourced from the 2012 Forms of Employment Survey. These data were collected in November 2012 by ABS interviewers from approximately 30,000 Australian households. For further information (including how Forms of Employment Survey data differs from the 2011 Census of Population and Housing data presented in Section Two), please refer to the Explanatory Notes.


SEX

The Forms of Employment Survey estimated there to be 2,016,800 business operators in Australia in November 2012. Of these, 1,345,600 were 'Male business operators' (66.7%) and 671,300 were 'Female business operators' (33.3%).


DURATION WITH BUSINESS

The most common duration in which business operators had been with their current business was '10 to 19 years' (21.7%). This was followed by the '20 years and over' (21.3%) and '3 to 5 years' (18.5%) duration periods. 'Male business operators' (24.0%) were more likely than 'Female business operators' (15.8%) to have been in operation in the '20 years and over' category.


INDUSTRY

'Male business operators' participated in the 'Construction' (25.0%), 'Professional, Scientific and Technical Services' (11.9%) and 'Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing' (9.6%) industries.

'Female business operators' were most common across the 'Professional, Scientific and Technical Services' (13.6%), 'Retail Trade' (10.6%) and 'Health Care and Social Assistance' (10.4%) industries.

OCCUPATION

The largest occupation group for business operators was 'Managers' (25.3%). This was followed by 'Technicians and Trades Workers' (21.0%), 'Professionals' (20.3%) and 'Clerical and Administrative Workers' (10.2%).

The highest percentage of 'Male business operators' were 'Technicians and Trades Workers' (27.0%), followed by 'Managers' (26.5%), 'Professionals' (20.2%) and 'Labourers' (9.6%). 'Female business operators' were mostly found in the 'Clerical and Administrative Workers' (25.3%), 'Managers' (22.7%), 'Professionals' (20.5%) and 'Community and Personal Service Workers' (9.6%) categories.





HOURS USUALLY WORKED IN BUSINESS

The majority of business operators indicated that they were full-time (66.6%) compared to the (33.4%) that were part-time. In addition, 32.2% (648,900) of business operators indicated they worked '49 or more' hours, followed by 16.9% (340,000) working '40' hours and 10.5% (212,100) working '1-14' hours.


CONTRACT WORK STATUS

As at November 2012, 1,036,900 (51.4%) business operators identified themselves as 'Other business operators' whilst the remaining 979,900 (48.6%) identified as 'Independent contractors'.


EMPLOYING STATUS

A total of 1,296,100 business operators said they 'Did not have employees' (64.3%) whilst 720,700 said they 'Had employees' (35.7%). These percentages were consistent when disaggregated by sex.


EXPECTED DURATION IN BUSINESS

The large majority of business operators (1,908,300) (94.6%) indicated that they 'Expected to be with business in 12 months'.


REASONS FOR EXPECTED DURATION IN BUSINESS LESS THAN 12 MONTHS

The most popular reason for an expected duration of less than 12 months as a business operator was 'Changing jobs/seeking other employment' (38.1%). This was followed by 'Retiring' (23.6%) and 'Employer/business closing down/downsizing' (15.2%). This trend was consistent across both male and female business operators.


AGE

The greatest percentage of business operators were aged in the in the '45-54' years age bracket (27.7%). This was followed by the '35-44' (24.7%), '25-34' (14.9%), '55-59' (11.8%), '60-64' (9.7%), '65 and over' (7.8%) and '20-24' (2.8%) age brackets.




STATE OR TERRITORY OF USUAL RESIDENCE

The state with the highest number of business operators was 'New South Wales' (644,400) (32.0%). This was followed by 'Victoria' (535,700) (26.6%), 'Queensland' (411,900) (20.4%), 'Western Australia' (211,400) (10.5%), 'South Australia' (136,600) (6.8%), 'Tasmania' (40,400) (2.0%), the 'Australian Capital Territory' (21,100) (1.0%) and the 'Northern Territory' (15,200) (0.8%).




RELATIONSHIP IN HOUSEHOLD

In 2012, most business operators identified themselves as being part of a family (87.4%).

Over three quarters of business operators identified themselves as a 'Husband, wife or partner' (78.9%) and of these people, 42.1% identified that they were 'With dependants'.

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