Construction Work Done, Australia, Preliminary

The value of total construction work done fell -0.3% in the September quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The fall was driven by building work done, which fell -0.9% in the September quarter. Building work done is 3.2% higher than at the same time last year. Engineering Construction rose 0.4% and is 4.0% higher than at the same time last year.  

The value of building work done fell -0.9% in the September quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The decrease was driven by non-residential building work done, which fell -2.2% in the September quarter. Non-residential building work done is -2.4% lower than at the same time last year. New-residential building work done remained flat (0.0%) and is 7.0% higher than at the same time last year.

Total construction work done fell in New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, while all other states and territories rose.

This publication provides an early indication of trends in building and engineering construction activity. The data are preliminary estimates based on a response rate of approximately 75% of the value of construction work done during the quarter. This is lower than the average response rate due to difficulties collecting data as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This places the data at increased risk of revision when results are updated in Engineering Construction Activity, Australia on 12 January 2022 and in Building Activity, Australia on 19 January 2022.

Mining projects tend to be complex in structure and comprise a number of different investment activities including exploration, engineering construction, plant and equipment and buildings. A feature article released in the March 2012 issue of Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, Australia provides a summary of the conceptual basis of the relevant ABS publications that measure investment in Australia, using a hypothetical mining project to illustrate how this investment is reflected in ABS data.

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This release previously used catalogue number 8755.0.

The Extraordinary Annual Seasonal Review undertaken this quarter has individually assessed each series to determine how each observation should be treated for estimation of the seasonal factors used to seasonally adjust the current end of the series. This process has ensured disruption to series caused by COVID-19 does not unduly affect estimates of the seasonal factors.

For series which have used the forward factors method (see list below), revisions to the seasonally adjusted series are likely to be larger than the revisions historically observed each quarter when concurrent adjustment was used. Series which have used forward factors have used static seasonal factor estimates since COVID-19 impacts were observed, and the review has updated these seasonal factor estimates. When concurrent adjustment is used, revisions to the seasonally adjusted estimates will typically be smaller because seasonal factor estimates are updated quarterly on the basis of the addition of just one extra data point.

The following Building Activity series previously used the forward factor method:

•  Private and total sector non-residential building work done in Victoria and Queensland; and
• new houses and alterations and additions to residential work done series in all states and territories.

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in construction activity. This measurement will be significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in activity during this time, as the construction industry faces on-going uncertainty. If the trend estimates in this publication were to be calculated without fully accounting for this irregular event, they would likely provide a misleading view of underlying construction activity.

It may be some time before the underlying trend in construction activity can be accurately estimated. The trend series have therefore been suspended starting from June 2020. The trend series will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend.

A new base year, 2019-20, has been introduced in the chain volume estimates resulting in revisions to growth rates in subsequent periods. In addition, the chain volume estimates have been re-referenced to 2019-20, preserving additivity in the quarters after the reference year. Re-referencing affects the levels of, but not the movements in, chain volume estimates. For further information, see the methodology