Australians spending more on eating out
By | theage.com.au | 29 April
Australians are spending more than ever before on eating out at cafes and restaurants, new figures show.
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released on Monday, the restaurant and catering industry generated $13.7 billion in income over the 2006-07 financial year.
This accounted for 0.5 per cent of Australia's gross domestic product (GDP), with income increasing by around 9.2 per cent per annum since the last figures were released in 2003-04.
Despite this growth, an industry group has warned that the income increase is barely keeping pace with increases in costs.
The ABS figures show a 9.2 per cent per annum increase in expenses over the same four year period.
Restaurant and Catering Australia CEO John Hart told AAP that increases in the costs of wages, food and rent are severely damaging the industry.
"The increase in revenue is only offsetting other rises, the average restaurant business is in a worse place now than this time last year," Mr Hart said.
Mr Hart blames a 10 per cent per annum increase in the cost of wages for much of the industry's woes and has called for sector specific wage increases to help the industry.
"We can't keep up with the rapid growth in the mining sector pushing up the minimum wage, we are calling for wage increases to be differentially applied across the economy," Mr Hart said.
While the number of new businesses did rise over the 06-07 period, the annual percentage of new businesses went down from 3.3 per cent in the period 1998-99 to 2003-04, to 1.2 per cent in the period 2003-04 to 2006-07.
Despite this bleak outlook, an extra 18,424 jobs were created in the restaurant and catering industry in the 06-07 period with around half of all people employed on a casual basis.
AAP
First published by TheAge.com.au on April 29 2008
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