The construction industry generated $305 billion in total income, contributed $99 billion to the Australian economy, and employed 950,000 people during the 2011/12 financial year.
According to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), two-thirds of the jobs in the industry were in construction services - that's carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, air conditioning mechanics and other tradespeople.
William Milne, director of Integrated Collections at the ABS, said the remaining jobs were split between building construction and civil engineering.
"Overall, construction contracting and subcontracting activity generated income of $233 billion," he said.
"Of this, $99 billion was in construction services, while building construction added another $74 billion and heavy and civil engineering generated $59 billion."
The majority of income generated through contracting and sub contracting work came from non-residential buildings (31 per cent) and houses (24 per cent), followed by pipelines (other than water) and other heavy duty construction (11 per cent).
Sales of other goods and services, such as sales of developed land and new houses, added a further $67 billion.
The total expenses of construction businesses were $275 billion, of which the main items were purchases ($82 billion), payments to other businesses for trade services, building and construction work ($77 billion) and labour costs of $60 billion.
"The construction industry reported an operating profit before tax of $30 billion, which works out as a profit margin of 10 per cent." Milne said.
Private Sector Construction Industry is available as a free download from the ABS website: www.abs.gov.au
Businesses within the scope of the survey are collectively referred to as construction businesses. Businesses predominantly involved in residential building and non-residential building construction are referred to as 'Building construction' and businesses predominantly involved in Construction Trade Services (concreting, carpentry, plumbing, etc), are referred to as 'Construction services'.
At the end of June 2012, there were 209,783 businesses in the construction industry.
During 2011/12, businesses in the construction industry generated total income of $305.5b, incurred $275.4b in total expenses and had employment of 950,000 persons. Total industry value added by these businesses was $99.4billion.
At the end of June 2012 there were 950,000 persons working in the construction industry.
The main occupations of persons within these businesses were tradespeople with 33.1 per cent (or 314,000 persons) and labourers with 20.4 per cent (or 194,000 persons).
Small businesses (employment range of 0-19) employed the majority of persons with 62.1 per cent (or 590,000), followed by medium size businesses (employment range of 20-199) with 19.3 per cent(or 183,000) and large size businesses (employment range of 200 or more people) with 18.6 per cent (or 177,000).
During 2011/12, businesses in the construction industry generated total income of $305.5billion.
The major source of income (76.3 per cent or $233.2b) was from trade services, building and construction, followed by sales of goods and other services (22.1 per cent or $67.5b).
During this time construction businesses incurred $275.4billion in total expenses.
Labour costs accounted for 21.9 per cent (or $60.4b) of total expenses. This represents an average labour cost per person employed for all in scope construction businesses of $63.6k.
Heavy and civil engineering construction recorded higher labour costs per person employed with $113.5k followed by building construction ($66.6k) and construction services ($50.7k).
Small construction businesses (employment range 0-19) accounted for 97.7 per cent (or 204,949) of all construction businesses and the largest share of total income with 49.0 per cent (or $149.8b).
Queensland and New South Wales recorded the greatest share of income from the sale of goods and services, each with 24.1 per cent (or $72.6b).
Comparatively, these states' population shares were 20.1 per cent and 32.1 per cent respectively. Although Western Australia's share of the population was 10.7 per cent, they accounted for 18.3 per cent (or $55.2b) of income from sales of goods and services.
In terms of average salaries in the Construction industry, Western Australia's average salary was $76.6k. This was followed by Queensland ($59.2k), Victoria ($51.9k) and Northern Territory ($51.6k).
The share of wages and salaries to total operating expenses in the construction industry varied across states, with Western Australia recording the highest level (22.6 per cent).
The lowest share of wages and salaries to total operating expenses were in South Australia (15.3 per cent) and the Australian Capital Territory (13.3 per cent).