Lead Story
Issue No. 47 - June/ july
Retail in SA
by Professor Richard Blandy
The Australian retail sector produces 5.4% of GDP1 and employs more than 1.5 million people - about 14.5% of all employment.
During the past decade the retail sector has grown one-third faster than the economy as a whole while retail employment has not quite kept pace with overall employment growth. Retail sales have increased by 82% over the same period, from about $10.6 billion per month to $19.3 billion per month3. On average, retail workers produce only about 37% as much as workers in general, largely because so many are part-time and casual. Average sales per employee are about $12,500 per month.
In SA, the retail sector is (relatively speaking) slightly larger than the sector nationally, producing 5.7% of Gross State Product4. In value-added (production) terms, retailing is growing at the same rate as the sector nationally. Since the SA economy has been growing more slowly than the national economy this means the retail sector in SA has increased its share of GSP from 5.1% to 5.7% over the past decade.
SA’s retail sector employs 117,000 people, about 15% of the State workforce5. Retail sector employment has been growing more slowly than nationally, however.
Retail sales have increased by 87% over the past decade in SA, faster than the national rate. They have also increased by 6.5% over the past year (to March 2009), compared to an increase of 6.3% nationally over the same period6. Average productivity is higher than the retail sector’s nationally, but average retail sales per employee are less at only about $11,700 per month.
Of major interest, currently, is what has been happening to retail sales over the past year and how these sales have changed by State and by retail sector. As can be seen in Figure 1, below, total Australian retail sales have risen significantly over the past year, notwithstanding the effects of the global financial crisis.
After a turndown in February total retail sales rebounded in March.
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