BUSINESS PERFORMANCE


CHANGES IN BUSINESS PERFORMANCE AND ACTIVITIES

These data provide information on business' assessment of whether various performance indicators and activities had decreased, stayed the same, or increased compared to the previous year.

Changes in business performance and activities(a)(b)(c), compared to previous year, 2012-13
		Decreased	Stayed the same	Increased	Not applicable
		%	%	%	%
Performance indicators and activities
	Income from sales of goods or services	34.4	21.1	34.6	10.1
	Range of products or services offered	7.1	61.2	16.5	15.5
	Profitability	37.4	27.1	25.8	10.2
	Productivity	17.0	45.2	22.1	16.0
	Total number of jobs or positions	15.4	56.0	14.7	14.0
	Export markets targeted	1.4	11.2	1.4	86.1
	Contracting out work/activities or outsourcing	6.4	22.3	6.6	64.8
	Structured/formal training for employees(d)	4.7	37.5	10.8	47.1
	Expenditure on Information Technology (IT)	5.5	39.4	16.9	38.3
	Social contributions(e)	5.4	36.3	8.5	49.8
(a) Proportions are of all businesses in each output category.
(b) Businesses were asked to indicate if there had been a change in any of the items listed compared to the previous year. No attempt was made to cross check this self-assessment with other information.
(c) The sum of the component items for each measure may not equal 100% due to rounding and/or provision of multiple responses. Refer to Explanatory Note 30 and the Quality Declaration.
(d) Includes attendance at training, workshops and seminars.
(e) Includes specific community enhancement projects, charity contributions or support.

An increase in income from sales of goods or services compared to the previous year was shown by 35% of businesses, almost the same proportion of businesses as those that showed a decrease (34%). Over a third of businesses had a decrease in profitability compared to the previous year (37%).

Businesses that employed 200 or more persons were most likely to show a decrease in the total number of jobs or positions (26%), expenditure on information technology (10%) and social contributions (6%).

The proportion of businesses that showed an increase in income from sales of goods and services was greatest in the Financial and insurance services industry (44%). Conversely, businesses in the Manufacturing industry were more likely to indicate a decrease in income from sales of goods and services (52%).


For each of the performance indicators provided, innovation-active businesses were more likely to show an increase in an indicator or activity from the previous year than non innovation-active businesses. For example, innovation-active businesses were more than twice as likely to increase in productivity (33%) and the total number of jobs or positions (21%) as non innovation-active businesses (14% and 10% respectively).

Innovation-active businesses were five times as likely to show an increase in the range of goods or services offered compared to non innovation-active businesses (30% compared with 6%) and were more likely to increase in profitability than non innovation-active businesses (34% compared with 20%).

Further data relating to changes in business performance can be accessed via the Downloads tab.


BARRIERS TO GENERAL BUSINESS ACTIVITIES OR PERFORMANCE

These data provide information on barriers that significantly hampered business' activities or performance during the year ended 30 June 2013. A definition of what constitutes a significant level of hampering was not provided and businesses were not asked to rank barriers in order of significance.

Barriers to general business activities or performance, by employment size(a)(b), 2012-13
		0-4 persons	5-19 persons	20-199 persons	200 or more persons	Total
		%	%	%	%	%
Lack of access to additional funds		13.9	17.5	18.8	11.0	15.4
Cost of inputs		12.6	18.8	19.8	18.3	15.1
Outstanding accounts receivable limiting cash flow		12.3	16.4	17.6	5.9	14.0
Lack of skilled persons:
	within the business	7.2	13.2	14.3	7.3	9.6
	within the labour market	7.0	15.8	18.9	9.5	10.7
	in any location(c)	11.3	21.6	25.4	12.3	15.6
Government regulations or compliance		11.5	15.6	14.9	17.5	13.1
Lack of customer demand for goods or services		17.6	20.1	17.1	15.3	18.3
Lower profit margins to remain competitive		23.1	34.3	30.8	25.8	27.2
Environmental factors(d)		4.7	6.6	4.8	4.8	5.3
Any of the listed barriers to general business activities or performance		50.9	61.2	61.6	50.6	54.9
None of the listed barriers to general business activities or performance		49.1	38.8	38.4	49.4	45.1
(a) Proportions are of all businesses in each output category.
(b) Businesses could identify more than one barrier and were not asked to rank barriers in order of significance.
(c) Includes businesses that reported lack of skilled persons within the business and/or within the labour market.
(d) Examples of environmental factors include natural disasters and compliance with water restrictions.

Overall, 55% of businesses had at least one barrier that significantly hampered their general business activities or performance. The most common barrier hampering general business activities or performance was lower profit margins to remain competitive (27%).

Lower profit margins to remain competitive was a barrier to general business activities or performance for more than one in three businesses in the Manufacturing, the Wholesale trade and the Retail trade industries.

Businesses in the Manufacturing industry were the most likely to be hampered by a lack of customer demand for goods or services (30%), while businesses in the Financial and insurance services industry were the most likely to be hampered by government regulations and compliance as barrier (22%).

Further data relating to barriers to general business performance and barriers to innovative activity can be accessed via the Downloads tab.