SMEs and Industry Sectors
SMEs constitute over 90% of enterprises in several industries
Enterprises with 0-19 FTEs are most predominant in the property and business services sector, with SMEs accounting for 98.9 percent of all enterprises in this sector. Small businesses constitute the majority of these, making up 94.6 percent of enterprises in this industry.
SMEs are also dominant in personal and other services, construction, finance and insurance and communication services sectors, making up almost 90 percent of businesses in each of these industry groups. Small businesses again account for the majority of SMEs in each of these sectors.
Figure 9 illustrates the significance of SMEs in each ANZSIC (Australia and New Zealand Industrial Classification) group, highlighting the importance of smaller enterprises to the economy.
The majority of SMEs are in the property and business services industry
Among all SMEs, a third (33.2 percent) are in the property and business services industry. A further 12.5 percent are in the construction industry and 11.7 percent are in the retail trade industry. Very small proportions of SMEs are in the government administration and defence (0.02 percent), electricity, gas and water supply (0.05 percent) and mining (0.13 percent) industries.
Figure 9: Significance of SMEs by ANZSIC Classification9
| ANZSIC Classification | Percentage in FTE Size Category |
| 0-5 | 6-19 | 20+ |
| A | 88.82 | 8.63 | 2.54 |
| B | 72.73 | 18.72 | 8.56 |
| C | 70.35 | 20.60 | 9.05 |
| D | 70.37 | 6.79 | 22.84 |
| E | 90.07 | 8.37 | 1.56 |
| F | 79.11 | 16.20 | 4.69 |
| G | 81.49 | 16.01 | 2.50 |
| H | 65.67 | 29.14 | 5.19 |
| I | 84.06 | 11.25 | 4.69 |
| J | 94.31 | 3.95 | 1.74 |
| K | 94.72 | 3.86 | 1.42 |
| L | 94.58 | 4.29 | 1.12 |
| M | 13.73 | 8.82 | 77.45 |
| N | 48.28 | 31.54 | 20.18 |
| O | 78.18 | 16.42 | 5.40 |
| P | 90.57 | 7.38 | 2.05 |
| Q | 88.79 | 9.67 | 1.55 |
Back to Top