TCT breakfast to discuss business survey

NEXT week’s Sunrise Series breakfast presented by Torquay Commerce and Tourism (TCT) will dig into the results of the Surf Coast Shire’s latest business survey.

The shire’s general manager of environment and development Ransce Salan and grant and business support officer Gretchen Gibson will lead a discussion about the survey at the breakfast, to be held at Peppers The Sands Resort.

According to TCT, business confidence is a unique barometer for economic activity as it is the measurement of what businesses think is going to happen in the future relative to where they are now, so business confidence reports are one of the few forward projecting data sets available to the business community.

The Surf Coast Shire’s economic insights report for 2018 states the Surf Coast’s townships and rural hinterland support more than 3,227 businesses that drive an economy worth nearly $1.25 billion annually.

Over a five-year period (2013-17), the gross regional product of the shire grew by an average of 6.74 per cent. This is higher than the average growth for the G21 region, Victoria and Australia.

The total employment estimate for the Surf Coast is 9,293 jobs, with the accommodation and food services sector providing the most (1,486, or 16 per cent).

The construction industry has the highest total output, at $547.58 million (22.9 per cent), with the second-highest percentage of jobs (14.10 per cent).

Rental, hiring and real estate services is the second-best performing sector in terms of output (13.6 per cent) and the highest in terms of value add (20.20 per cent), but accounts for very few jobs (180 – less than 2 per cent).

The TCT Sunrise Series breakfast for September – sponsored by the Surf Coast Times – will be held at Peppers The Sands Resort, Torquay, on Tuesday September 25 from 7-8.30am.

For more information and tickets, head to facebook.com/torquaycommerce.