Coast business numbers in decline

The number of businesses actively trading on the Central Coast has declined by 2.22% over the four years from 2007 to 2011 according to recently released figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This is in spite of the fact that the number of businesses nationally have grown by 3.6% with a similar growth in NSW, although there have been ups and downs in other States.

CCBR has extracted the regional figures from The Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, June 2007 to June 2011 – for all of Australia which shows a disturbing decline in the number of businesses.

The number of Coast businesses by numbers employed is as follows:

People Employed	2007	2011
Non-employing	12,711	12,547
1-4	6,471	6,233
5-19	2,544	2,508
20-199	789	741
200+	33	18
TOTAL	22,548	22,047

Large employers (200+) have shown a substantial drop over the period declining 45% from 33 in 2007 to just 18 in 2011.

Medium size businesses (20–199) have also shrunk from 789 in 2007 to 741 in 2011.

Micro businesses (Non employing and from 1 to 4 persons employed) continue to dominate the region’s business scene, representing 85% of all businesses.

The most significant number of businesses within the nineteen categories is:

Category	No. of Businesses
Agriculture and Fishing	614
Manufacturing	1,019
Construction	5,005
Wholesale Trade	730
Retail Trade	1,581
Accommodation and Food Services	830
Transport and Warehousing	1,141
Information & Telecommunications	232
Financial & Insurance Services	1,427
Rental & Real Estate Services	2,205
Professional & Technical Services	2,684
Administrative & Support Services	948
Health Care & Social Assistance	1,268

These statistics confirm the findings of the Central Coast Research Foundation (CCRF) for the September 2011 half year reported in November 2011.

According to the Central Coast Research Foundation the Central Coast’s economy has been in decline across a number of sectors for the last five years.

The CCRF said that the number of Central Coast residents in employment since 2006 has remained relatively stable with a spike in 2010 appearing to be due to the Federal Government’s Stimulus Package (see Table below).

Sept Qtr	Persons Employed	Unemp. %	Part. Rate
2011	141,300	8.5%	58.2%
2010	146,300	4.1%	58.2%
2009	134,300	6.8%	56.8%
2008	137,500	5.7%	57.3%
2007	139,900	7.9%	60.6%

Source: Central Coast Research Foundation Economic Updates

It should be noted that the above Persons Employed data is across the board and includes employment by government and other non-business agencies as well as commuters.

The loss of employment due to business closures is therefore more disturbing and represents a potential loss of over 9,000 jobs.

The CCRF, in the March 2011 Half Year, found that residential building approvals had declined over the past five years and noted that there have been no new Greenfield rezonings of significance in the past fifteen years.

It also found that new passenger vehicle sales had been in decline for the past five years.

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