As part of annual reporting under the CATSI Act, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations provide information on the sectors in which they operate.
Figure 16: Number of sectors in which the top 500 corporations operated, 2015–16
During 2015–16, 320 (64.0 per cent) of the top 500 corporations reported that they were active in one sector only (figure 16). This is three corporations fewer than 2014–15 (figure 17).
A total of 171 corporations operated in more than one sector. Of these, 149 corporations operated in two to six sectors—a decrease of two corporations from the previous financial year. The highest number of operating sectors reported by a single corporation was 11. Nine corporations did not report any sector at all.
Figure 17: Number of top 500 corporations operating in one sector only, 2008–09 to 2015–16
Since 2008–09 the number of corporations in the top 500 that are operating in one sector only has consistently been over half.
Figure 18: Number of the top 500 corporations per sector, 2015–16
Figure 18 shows the ‘health and community services’ sector remained the most common sector of corporation activity with 202 corporations (40.4 per cent). This is up 2.0 per cent from 2014–15 when there were 197 corporations in the sector.
The three sectors that showed the highest percentage growth within the top 500 corporations since the previous financial year were:
- transport and storage—72.7 per cent increase (from 11 to 19 corporations)
- construction—19 per cent increase (from 21 to 25 corporations)
- mining—12.5 per cent increase (from 8 to 9 corporations).
The sectors with the largest declines were:
- wholesale trade—57.1 per cent decrease (from 7 to 3 corporations)
- manufacturing—50 per cent decrease (from 2 corporations to 1)
- communication services—25.8 per cent decrease (from 31 to 23 corporations).