Floor space and employment survey 2022

The professional and business services sector had the greatest number of business establishments across the local area in 2022 with 16.5% of all businesses. The food and drink sector contained 16.3% of all businesses.

There was a net reduction of 1,893 businesses between 2017 and 2022. The professional and business services sector also had the largest net loss in the number of establishments with a decrease of 477 businesses. The retail and personal services sector decreased by 307 businesses, and the food and drink sector decreased by 220 businesses.

Small businesses (1–19 jobs) accounted for 80.7% of all businesses, providing 20.9% of jobs in the local area. Medium businesses (20–199 jobs) accounted for 17.6% of all businesses, providing 36.7% of all jobs, and large businesses (200+ jobs) accounted for 1.6% of all businesses, providing 42.4% of all jobs in the local area.

There were an additional 66,017 workers, a 15.1% increase from 2012. The top 6 sectors by number of workers:

The sector with the largest growth in worker numbers since 2017 was finance and financial services which grew by 9,309 workers (8.0% increase). This was followed by food and drink, which grew by 5,810 (21.9% increase) and tourist, cultural and leisure which grew by 5,042 (17.8% increase).

The sector with the most significant decreases in employment between the 2017 and 2022 surveys was professional and business services which decreased by 5,247 workers (5.3% decrease). This was followed by government which decreased by 4,953 workers (14.5% decrease) and transport and logistics which decreased by 3,681 workers (26.7% decrease).

In the 2022 survey there was 16,652,587m² of occupied business floor area. Total business floor area (including vacant space) was 18,394,244m², an increase of 572,394m² (3.2%) since 2017.

The top 6 sectors by occupied business floor space:

The largest growth sectors by floor space were tourist, cultural and leisure, which grew by 175,797m² (6.0% increase) and community, which grew 72,525m² (17.8% increase). The industries with the most significant decreases in floor area since the 2017 survey were professional and business services, with a decline of 91,596m² (5.3% decrease) and government, which declined by 64,998m² (6.5% decrease).

Residential space use had the largest quantity of floor area (11,619,622m²) and the largest net growth of floor area across the local area with an additional 928,055m² (8.7% increase) between the 2017 and 2022 surveys. The office space use occupied the second largest proportion of overall floor area in the local area with 7,611,629m² (19.9%). The office category experienced a net increase in floor area of about 65,072m² since the 2017 survey, as removals for redevelopment occurred at the same rate as new completions.

Shop/showroom space accounted for 2.7% of the city's internal floor area, surpassing one million square metres for the first time (1,017,595m²). Restaurant/eating space made up 2.5% with a net increase in floor area of 34,925m² between 2017 and 2022. Industrial space experienced a net decrease of 27,639m² (5.1% decrease).

City-based industry sector

Workspace ratios are calculated by dividing the total internal area (m²) by the total number of jobs. The workspace ratio for all industry sectors in the local area fell from 33.3m² to 32.1m² per worker between 2017 and 2022 (excluding households, redevelopment, vacant and ‘other’ sectors). The decrease of -1.1m²/worker indicates a tightening of workspace ratios, or less space per worker.

The most intensive use of workspace occurred in the finance and financial services sector, which had a workspace ratio of 13.6m² per worker. The professional and business services sector had an average workspace ratio of 17.4m² per worker.

Space use

The average workspace ratio for partitioned and open plan offices across the local area expanded from 10.1m²/worker in 2017 to 10.9m²/worker in 2022. This was due to changes in work patterns including work from home (WFH) leading to office space in the local area being used at a lower level than 2017.

Housing, pipeline development and forecasts can be found on the City Monitors page.

Shapefiles with key survey data are available for download through our data hub. Search for ‘floor space and employment survey’ and download data from the 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022 surveys.

Explore the survey data in an interactive map.

The City of Sydney undertakes its comprehensive floor space and employment survey every 5 years to coincide with the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Census of Population and Housing.

The survey collects data on all businesses, floor space uses and employment numbers for every building or property in the City of Sydney local area. It provides a snapshot of the built form, land uses and economic activity of the city every 5 years. The field data captured for the most recent survey was undertaken in 2022/23.

The data collection phase of the survey involves field surveyors visiting every business in the City of Sydney local area to determine:

• what industry the business is in
• how many workers are in each business
• the floor space use of each business through visual inspection
• the use of existing floor space.
  
   

Information for various capacity measures such as quantity of seating, parking, rooms and units are also collected. Residential dwellings are not surveyed onsite but are determined from the street and validated by checking existing floor plans, aerial photographs and other sources.

The data is used by both internal and external stakeholders as a basis for strategic planning, policy formulation, business development and forecasting.

The floor space and employment survey uses a composite city-based industry classification to report on the various industry sectors across the local area, categorised by the main function of a business.

The classifications are based on Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) 2006, updated to allow for the analysis of emerging sectorsThese include creative industries, ICT (information and communications technology), and tourist, culture and leisure. As well as traditional industry sectors such as finance and financial services, food and drink, and retail and personal services.

The floor space and employment survey collects data on how individual spaces are used across the entire local area, both internal and external. There are 15 space use divisions.

The main divisions include office, residential, shop/showroom, restaurant/eating, common area and parking.

The 2022 floor space and employment survey was captured using a geographic information system (GIS) to provide visualisation and spatial analysis of the city's floor space uses, in both 2 and 3-dimensions.

The GIS database contains information about 26,321 buildings, 21,618 business establishments and about 926,000 spatial records. These can be examined at any level to provide a point-in-time snapshot of floor space use and employment across the local area.

Housing, pipeline development and forecasts can be found on the City Monitors page.