Floor space and employment survey 2017

The professional and business services sector had the greatest number of business establishments across the local area in 2017 with 17.2% of all businesses. The retail and personal services sector contained 15.0% of all businesses.

The professional and business services sector also had the highest growth in the number of establishments with a net increase of 462 businesses. The finance and financial services sector grew by 459 businesses, and the food and drink sector grew by 457 businesses.

Small businesses (1–19 workers) accounted for 83.8% of all businesses, employing 23.2% of workers in the local area. Medium businesses (20–199 workers) accounted for 14.7% of all businesses, employing 34.7% of all workers, and large businesses (200+ workers) accounted for 1.5% of all businesses, employing 42.2% of all workers 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 2012 was professional and business services which grew by 21,282 workers (27.2% increase). This was followed by finance and financial services, which grew by 16,005 (16.1% increase) and property development and operation which grew by 11,405 (122.7% increase), albeit from a low baseline.

The sector with the most significant decreases in employment between the 2012 and 2017 surveys was transport and logistics which decreased by 2,942 workers (17.6% decrease). This was followed by creative industries which decreased by 1,990 workers (5.7% decrease) and manufacturing which decreased by 1,893 workers (35.5% decrease).  These declines are consistent with the changes in development in the local area; including the movement of industries within these sectors out of the central Sydney area and the redevelopment of the Green Square precinct.

Floor area

In the 2017 survey business floor area increased by 4.5% to 17,195,132m² since the 2012 survey and accounted for 45.3% of the total floor area. The top 6 sectors by floor area:

The largest growth sectors by floor space were tourist, cultural and leisure, which grew by 368,514m² (13.5% increase) and higher education and research 217,630m² (17.9% increase). The industries with the most significant decreases in floor area since the 2012 survey were manufacturing, with a decline of 145,366 (-43.5% decrease) and transport and logistics, which declined by 265,893m² (-14.3% decrease).

Residential space use had the largest growth of floor area across the local area with an additional 1,246,491m² (13.2% increase) between the 2012 and 2017 surveys. While office space use occupied the second largest proportion of overall floor area in the local area with 6,885,303m² (18.1%), the office category experienced a decrease in floor area of approximately 31,500m² since the 2012 survey.

Shop/showroom space accounted for 2.6% of the city's internal floor area, with a decrease in floor area of 4,816m² while restaurant/eating space made up 2.3% with an increase in floor area of 155,597m² between 2012 and 2017. Industrial space experienced the largest decrease of all space use divisions, with a reduction of 191,525m² (26.0% decrease) between 2012 and 2017.

In 2017 office space use employed the largest proportion of workers with 84.8% of total employment (425,339), followed by restaurant/eating (28,897, 5.8%) and shop/showroom (19,530, 3.9%).

City-based industry sector

Work space ratios are calculated by dividing the total internal area (m²) by the total number of employees. The work space ratio for all industry sectors in the local area fell from 37.8m² to 34.3m² per worker between 2012 and 2017 (excluding households, redevelopment, vacant and ‘other’ sectors). The decrease of -3.5 indicates a tightening of work space ratios, or less space per worker.

The most intensive use of work space occurred in the finance and financial services sector, which had a work space ratio of 14.9m² per worker. The sector that experienced the largest decrease of work space ratio was the property development and operation sector, with a decrease of 31.1% since 2012.

Space use

The average work space ratio for partitioned and open plan offices across the local area contracted to 10.1m² (from 13.1m²) per worker, a 22.9% decrease between 2012 and 2017 indicating a continued tightening of floor area per worker.

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 and 2017 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 2017.

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 sectors including 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 2017 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 26,203 buildings, 23,511 business establishments and approximately 883,000 spatial records that 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.