Business Indicators, Australia

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Quarterly estimates of private sector sales, wages, profits and inventories

Reference period
June 2023
Released
4/09/2023

Key statistics

Seasonally adjusted, current price estimates for:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 13.1% 
  • Wages and salaries rose 1.8% 

Seasonally adjusted, chain volume estimate for:

  • Inventories fell 1.9% 
Key data items
 Mar Qtr 23 to Jun Qtr 23 (%)Jun Qtr 22 to Jun Qtr 23 (%)
Sales of goods and services (Chain volume measures)
 Manufacturing  
  Trendnana
  Seasonally Adjusted-2.0-0.9
 Wholesale trade  
  Trendnana
  Seasonally Adjusted-3.40.3
Inventories (Chain volume measures)  
 Trendnana
 Seasonally Adjusted-1.92.0
Company gross operating profits  
 Trendnana
 Seasonally Adjusted-13.1-11.8
Wages and salaries  
 Seasonally Adjusted1.89.9
  1. na - not available. Trend estimates have been suspended due to the impacts of COVID-19.

Inventories

  1. Trend estimates have been suspended

Company gross operating profits

  1. Trend estimates have been suspended

Notes on release

Manufacturing subdivision data

Manufacturing subdivision data published in time series spreadsheets (tables 24 to 29) will cease to be released from September quarter 2023. The ABS will continue to produce Manufacturing data at industry division level in-line with all the other industries published in the Business Indicators survey.

Suspension of trend series

In the March quarter 2020, trend estimates were suspended due to the impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19). The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in business activity. In the short term, this measurement has been significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in business activity due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, the publication of trend estimates for this period may provide a misleading view of underlying business activity. With underlying business activity now being less affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19), the ABS will continue to review the trend series with a view to reinstating trend data in the near future. 

Comparison between company gross operating profits and gross operating surplus

Valuation changes have had an impact on the value of inventories held by Australian businesses this quarter. An Inventories Valuation Adjustment (IVA) is applied in the calculation of the Gross Operating Surplus of private non-financial corporations (GOS) estimate in the Australian National Accounts. The IVA for the June quarter 2023 is -$857m which is $2,242m lower than the March quarter 2023 IVA of $1,385m.

No adjustment is made to the Company Gross Operating Profits (CGOP) estimate in this publication and, as a result, users should exercise caution when comparing CGOP and GOS. It should be noted that there are other differences between the two series. In particular, changes are made to GOS when annual benchmarks are applied, and slightly different seasonal factors apply to the two series. Given this, while CGOP movements are an appropriate indicator for GOS, the two series will not have equivalent seasonally adjusted movements from quarter to quarter.

Analysis by industry

​​​​​​​Featured series

The following graphs and commentary refer to seasonally adjusted estimates for sales of goods and services and inventories in volume terms, and wages and salaries and company gross operating profits in current price terms. 

Total all industries

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 13.1% 
  • Wages and salaries rose 1.8%

Inventories

  1. Total inventories limited to: Accommodation and food services; Electricity, gas, water and waste services; Manufacturing; Mining; Retail trade; Wholesale trade

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted: 

  • Inventories fell 1.9%

Mining

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted: 

  • Company gross operating profits fell 21.3%
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.6%

Sales of goods and services | Inventories

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted: 

  • Sales of goods and services fell 0.5%
  • Inventories fell 5.2%

Manufacturing

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 8.9%
  • Wages and salaries rose 1.0%

Sales of goods and services | Inventories

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services fell 2.0%
  • Inventories remained relatively unchanged this quarter

Electricity, gas, water and waste services

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 4.0%
  • Wages and salaries rose 3.0% 

Sales of goods and services | Inventories

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services rose 1.9%
  • Inventories remained relatively unchanged this quarter

Construction

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits rose 0.5%
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.8%

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services rose 2.2%

Wholesale trade

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 6.8%
  • Wages and salaries rose 1.8%

Sales of goods and services | Inventories

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services fell 3.4%
  • Inventories fell 2.3%

Retail trade

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits rose 1.8%
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.0% 

Sales of goods and services | Inventories

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services remained relatively unchanged this quarter
  • Inventories fell 2.1%

Accommodation and food services

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 23.6%
  • Wages and salaries fell 1.5%

Sales of goods and services | Inventories

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted: 

  • Sales of goods and services rose 0.4%
  • Inventories fell 1.0% 

Transport, postal and warehousing

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 11.0%
  • Wages and salaries rose 0.9% 

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services rose 3.3%

Information media and telecommunications

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 0.3%
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.6%

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services rose 0.3%

Financial and insurance services

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits rose 15.7%
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.7%

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services fell 1.8%

Rental, hiring and real estate services

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 11.8%
  • Wages and salaries rose 3.9%

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services rose 2.6%

Professional, scientific and technical services

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 6.8%
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.1% 

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services fell 0.2%

Administrative and support services

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits rose 25.7%
  • Wages and salaries rose 1.3%

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services rose 1.8%

Education and training

Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Wages and salaries rose 3.0%

Health care and social assistance

Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Wages and salaries rose 0.6%

Arts and recreation services

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits rose 2.7%
  • Wages and salaries rose 5.0%

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services rose 1.0%

Other services

Company gross operating profits | Wages and salaries

In current prices, seasonally adjusted:

  • Company gross operating profits rose 2.2%
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.1% 

Sales of goods and services

In chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted:

  • Sales of goods and services rose 1.4%

Data downloads

Manufacturing subdivision data published in time series spreadsheets (tables 24 to 29) will cease to be released from September quarter 2023. The ABS will continue to produce Manufacturing data at industry division level in-line with all the other industries published in the Business Indicator’s survey.

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

Business Indicators  - Quarterly estimates of private sector sales, wages, profits and inventories

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5676.0.

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