Australian Industry

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Annual estimates of key economic and financial performance of industries in Australia, including income, expenses, profit and capital expenditure

Reference period
2021-22 financial year
Released
26/05/2023

Key statistics

  • Mining industry earnings grew $54.3b (32.7%).
  • Rental, hiring and real estate services industry earnings grew $8.5b (13.5%).
  • Wholesale trade industry earnings grew $8.0b (30.2%).
  • Manufacturing industry earnings grew $7.6b (17.8%).
  • Construction industry earnings declined $5.4b (-9.3%).

Note: refers to Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).

Australian Industry Employment and IVA data and movements, 2020-21 to 2021-22
ANZSIC DivisionEmployment at end of June ('000)Industry value added ($m)
20212022Change (%)2020-212021-22Change (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing437426-2.531,55439,61625.5
Mining1892005.8218,657283,23829.5
Manufacturing8408703.6107,811124,19615.2
Electricity, gas, water and waste services1231316.549,40448,615-1.6
Construction1,1941,2292.9129,577141,3259.1
Wholesale trade5605834.171,81086,10319.9
Retail trade1,3871,4192.390,786102,06412.4
Accommodation and food services1,0561,0610.540,07345,65113.9
Transport, postal and warehousing6336512.872,15682,98515.0
Information media and telecommunications1721836.438,28043,59513.9
Rental, hiring and real estate services4124294.186,640100,01715.4
Professional, scientific and technical services1,2031,2937.5143,539164,08814.3
Administrative and support services9539994.867,73978,86816.4
Public administration and safety (private)90966.76,8027,54510.9
Education and training (private)4504663.633,25436,2599.0
Health care and social assistance (private)1,4531,5375.8110,269124,10012.5
Arts and recreation services22024511.412,02715,03125.0
Other services5345492.833,07738,73717.1

Industry summary

  • The Mining industry experienced growth across all key data items in 2021-22. EBITDA increased 32.7% ($54.3b), following a 4.9% ($7.7b) increase in 2020-21. Mining IVA similarly experienced growth, increasing 29.5% ($64.6b) following a 4.4% ($9.2b) increase in 2020-21. 
  • Rental, hiring and real estate services industry EBITDA increased 13.5% ($8.5b) following a 3.1% ($1.9b) increase in 2020-21. Rental services IVA increased 15.4% ($13.4b) following a 1.8% ($1.5b) increase in 2020-21. 
  • Wholesale trade industry EBITDA increased 30.2% ($8.0b), following a 0.2% ($62m) increase in 2020-21. Wholesale trade IVA increased 19.9% ($14.3b) following a 0.4% (-$263m) slight decrease in 2020-21. 
  • Manufacturing industry EBITDA increased 17.8% ($7.6b), following a 6.9% ($2.8b) increase in 2020-21. Manufacturing IVA increased 15.2% ($16.1b) following a 0.5% ($501m) increase in 2020-21. 
  • Agriculture, forestry and fishing industry EBITDA increased 26.2% ($5.6b), following a 37.0% ($5.8b) increase in 2020-21. Agriculture IVA increased 25.5% ($8.1b), following a 18.1% ($4.8b) increase in 2020-21. 
  • Construction industry EBITDA declined 9.3% (-$5.4b) following an 8.0% ($4.2b) increase in 2020-21. Construction IVA increased 9.1% ($11.7b) following a 1.6% ($2.1b) increase in 2020-21.
  • Total employment increased 462,000 people (3.9%), with the largest growth reported by the Professional, scientific and technical services industry (90,000 people or 7.5%), and the Health care and social assistance industry (84,000 people or 5.8%).

Note: Financial estimates in this release are expressed in current prices.

For more information on the scope and coverage or survey design for this release, refer to the Methodology page.

Industry analysis

Agriculture, forestry and fishing

Mining

Manufacturing

Electricity, gas, water and waste services

Construction

Wholesale trade

Retail trade

Accommodation and food services

Transport, postal and warehousing

Information media and telecommunications

Auxiliary finance and insurance services

Rental, hiring and real estate services

Professional, scientific and technical services

Administrative and support services

Public administration and safety (private)

Education and training (private)

Health care and social assistance (private)

Arts and recreation services

Other services

Business performance by size

  • In 2021-22, businesses of all sizes recorded an increase in most key data items, with medium sized businesses displaying the strongest signs of growth in Employment (161,000 people, 5.7%), Sales and service income (13.8%, $124.0b) and EBITDA (30.7%, $25.5b). 
  • Micro, medium and large businesses rebounded well as COVID-19 restrictions eased, reporting growth in earnings of 6.0% ($11.6b), 30.7% ($25.5b) and 17.3% ($47.6b) respectively.
  • Small businesses (those with 5-19 employees) were the only business size to report an overall 3.1% (-$2.3b) decline in earnings. This decline was driven by decreases in earnings for Manufacturing (-30.0%, -$1.6b) and Transport, postal and warehousing (-33.6%, -$1.5b). 

Micro businesses

Small businesses

Medium businesses

Large businesses

For more information and estimates classified by business size refer to Table 5 'Business size by industry division' in the 'Australian Industry by division' data cube.

State and territory performance

In 2021-22, east coast states New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland accounted for the largest share of each of the three key state economic indicators: Sales and service income, Employment and Wages and salaries.
The key economic indicators for most states and territories were comparable to the population distribution in the Estimated Resident Population. New South Wales had the largest population share at 31.4%, corresponding to the largest share of total Sales and services income at 31.2%. Northern Territory had the smallest population share at 1.0%, which corresponded to the smallest share in total Sales and service income.

State and territory growth

In 2021-22, when compared to 2020-21:

  • All states and territories experienced growth in all three key state economic indicators for Total selected industries.
  • Queensland’s $816.8b contribution to total Sales and service income growth ($134.5b) was driven by the Mining industry ($40.0b) and Wholesale trade ($21.0b), while New South Wales’ growth ($133.1b) was driven by Wholesale trade ($23.2b), the Mining industry ($18.2b) and the Construction industry ($13.4b).
  • The Professional, scientific and technical services industry had the largest increase in Employment, with total growth of 90,000 people (7.5%). This was driven by growth in the industry in all states and territories, from 1,000 people in Tasmania (%) to 33,000 people in Victoria (10.1%). 
  • Agriculture, forestry and fishing was the only industry that saw a decline in Employment in most state and territories, recording a decline of 11,000 people (-2.5%), with New South Wales experiencing the largest Employment decline (-6,000 people, -4.9%).

Sales and service income share across states and territories

Loading map...

A map of Australia depicting states and territories share of Sales and service income in 2021-22:

  • New South Wales had the largest share of Sales and service income at 31.2% ($1,313b), followed by Victoria at 24.2% ($1,017b). 
  • Wholesale trade was the largest industry for New South Wales and Victoria, contributing 17.4% ($228.7b) and 17.3% ($175.5b) respectively.
  • Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory contributed the least to overall Sales and service income, each respectively accounting for 1.4% ($59.8b), 1.3% ($54.2b) and 1.1% ($45.4b) of Sales and service income share.
  • Wholesale trade and Retail trade were the top contributing industries to Sales and service income for Queensland and South Australia, contributing a combined 27.1% ($221.2b) and 33.2%% ($77.0b) respectively.
  • The Mining industry contributed 36.8% ($246.4b) to Sales and service income for Western Australia.

Employment share across states and territories

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A map of Australia depicting states and territories share of Employment in June 2022:

  • New South Wales had the largest share of national Employment at 4.0 million people (32.4%), followed by Victoria at 3.2 million people (26.2%) and Queensland at 2.4 million people (19.6%). 
  • In Victoria, Retail trade was the highest employing industry with 392,000 people (12.1%).
  • Health care and social assistance was the largest employer for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory. The industry employed 479,000 people (11.9% of total state employment) in New South Wales, 328,000 people (13.5%) in Queensland, 114,000 people (14.7%) in South Australia, 151,000 people (11.0%) in Western Australia, 35,000 people (15.1%) in Tasmania, and 15,000 people (14.0%) in the Northern Territory.
  • For the Australian Capital Territory, Professional, scientific and technical services was the highest employing industry, employing 40,000 people (19.4% of the state total).

Wages and salaries share across states and territories

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A map of Australia depicting states and territories share of Wages and salaries in 2021-22:

  • New South Wales accounted for the largest share of wages at 33.2% ($238.0b), followed by Victoria at 25.5% ($183.2b) and Queensland at 18.8% ($135.2b).
  • Professional, scientific and technical services had the largest share of wages in New South Wales (17.2%, $41.0b), Victoria (16.6%, $30.4b), and Australian Capital Territory (29.2%, $3.6b).
  • Health care and social assistance had the largest share of wages in Queensland (12.5%, $16.9b), South Australia (13.6%, $5.6b), and Tasmania (15.2%, $1.8b).
  • Mining had the largest share of wages in Western Australia (18.4%, $16.6b), whilst Construction had the largest share of wages in Northern Territory (17.3%, $1.1b).
  • Tasmania had the lowest average Wages and salary per person employed at approximately $50,000, whilst Western Australia had the highest average Wages and salary per person employed at approximately $66,000.

Note that average wages and salaries have been calculated using wages and salaries for the full financial year 2021-22 and exclude the drawings of working proprietors and partners of unincorporated businesses, whereas Employment is a point in time estimate at June 2022 and includes working proprietors and partners, so the ratio should be used with caution.

For more information and estimates classified by state and territory refer to Table 6 'States and territories by industry division' in the 'Australian industry by division' data cube.

For information about the method used to derive state and territory estimates, please refer to the Methodology section on Estimation Methodology: State and Territory estimates

Changes in this release

Time Series Spreadsheets

Time series spreadsheets containing key data items for all industries have been included with this release.

The data contained in these spreadsheets is consistent with the existing datacubes.

  • Key data items in these spreadsheets are available from 2006-07 to 2021-22.
  • Off-June adjusted data are available from 2010-11 to 2021-22.
  • State splits of selected data items are available from 2007-08 to 2021-22.

A time series spreadsheet user guide is available to assist users in making the best use of this format.

Data Explorer

The same data available in the time series spreadsheets has also been loaded into data explorer, which enables users to filter data to match their requirements.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Data downloads

Australian Industry consultation

The ABS welcomes your views on this publication through a short survey on the ABS Consultation Hub. Results from this consultation may include changes to the content, format or release schedule of this publication in the future.

The ABS would like to thank businesses for their continued support in responding to our surveys.

Data files

Time series spreadsheets

The data contained in these spreadsheets is consistent with the existing datacubes.

  • Key data items in these spreadsheets are available from 2006-07 to 2021-22.
  • Off-June adjusted data are available from 2010-11 to 2021-22.
  • State splits of selected data items are available from 2007-08 to 2021-22.

Unless otherwise stated the basis of all data is original, not off-june adjusted.

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

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

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Australian Industry - Annual estimates of key economic and financial performance of industries in Australia, including income, expenses and profit measures.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8155.0.

Post release changes

22/01/2024: The Australian Industry Employment and IVA data and movements table in the Key statistics section was updated to correct the percentage change for Industry value added for Arts and recreation services.

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