APPENDIX COMPARING OTHER ABS DATA
INTRODUCTION
1 This publication presents experimental estimates to the ANZSIC class level in table 3.1. These show the relative performance of each industry class.
2 Other ABS publications also present estimates for specific industries or economic activities for the 2003-04 reference year. These publications can be categorised based on the frequency of the statistical collections that produce them, that is:
Annual:
Electricity, Gas, Water and Sewerage Operations, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8226.0)
Manufacturing Industry, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8221.0)
Mining Operations, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8415.0)
Irregular - service industries survey (SIS):
Accommodation Services, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8695.0)
Cafes and Restaurants, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8655.0)
Public Libraries, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8561.0)
Museums, Australia, 2003-04 (cat no. 8560.0).
3 These publications supplement the Australian Industry summary statistics with a detailed examination of the structure and performance of businesses involved in selected economic activities for the 2003-04 reference year.
ANNUAL COLLECTIONS
4 The annual publications listed above present results from statistical collections that also contribute to the estimates shown in this publication. Hence, the estimates in this publication for the Manufacturing, Mining and Electricity, gas and water supply industries will closely resemble those presented in the publications specific to those industries. The only difference in methodology used to produce the two sets of estimates is that different versions of the ATO business income tax (BIT) file have been used. Specifically, because of the different processing timetables of the respective surveys, a later version of BIT data has been available for use in compiling the estimates in this publication compared to those in the industry-specific publications listed above. Because the contribution of BIT data to aggregates for these industries is relatively small (1% or less of Australian sales and service income in 2003-04 for Mining and Electricity, gas and water supply, and 3% for Manufacturing), the effect of the use of different versions of the BIT file is not significant.
IRREGULAR COLLECTIONS
5 The service industries publications listed above present results of statistical collections conducted as part of the ABS's program of Service Industries Statistics (SIS), which focuses on different industries and economic activities each year. The scope and coverage of these collections differ from those which produce the estimates in this publication, and hence differences in results can arise. These differences are further explained below.
6 One reason that the two sets of estimates vary relates to the use of different industry coding practices. For the Australian Industry publication, businesses are coded to ANZSIC industry classes on the basis of the activity reported to the ATO when they registered for an ABN or, for more complex businesses, on the basis of information reported directly to the ABS. On the other hand, the service industries surveys present estimates for industries based on detailed financial data reported in the survey. There are a number of reasons why a business classified to any given ANZSIC industry on the ABS Business Register (ABSBR) may not have been mainly engaged in activities associated with that industry during the 2003-04 reference year. This may be because of inaccurate or incomplete information at the time the business was registered, or it may be because the business has changed activity, either temporarily or permanently.
7 Another reason for differences relates to the scope of the respective surveys:
- Non-employing units were included in the scope of Australian Industry but generally excluded from the scope of the service industries collections, unless they satisfied significance criteria;
- The population used for the public libraries survey was drawn from external sources rather than from the ABSBR; the population used for the museums survey was drawn from both the ABSBR and external sources. Organisations listed on these external sources included some that are not classified to the relevant industries on the ABSBR;
- The libraries and museums surveys include general government units. Such units are outside the scope of the Australian Industry estimates for most industries, including these.
8 The table below gives an approximate indication of the effects of these factors in contributing to differences in estimates. For each industry included in the service industries surveys for 2003-04, set out are the percentage difference for two key variables presented in Table 3.1 compared to their estimates from the SIS surveys, and the major sources of such differences as discussed above. The substantial differences in estimates for Libraries and Museums are due to the very high proportion of general government units that predominate in these industries, and are therefore out of scope of Australian Industry. For the Accommodation and Cafes and restaurants industries, the effect of including non-employing units in the EAS data tends to outweigh the differences attributable to other scope variations and the different industry coding practices between the surveys.
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