The number of Australian Business Number registrations surged 36 per cent in 2016, driven by the growth of 'sharing economy' services like Uber and Airtasker, with western suburbs in both Sydney and Melbourne emerging as ABN hotspots.
There were 883,740 new ABNs registered in 2016, up from 649,947 in 2015 according to Veromo, an automator of business set-up processes which compiled updates from the Australian Business Register and ASIC to get the numbers.
The long-term trend toward part-time and contract work saw the number of ABNs registered rise between 4 per cent and 8 per cent every year between 2012 and 2015. However the big surge in 2016 followed an Australian Tax Office directive in 2015 that sharing economy workers would need an ABN to keep their positions with Uber, Airtasker, Deliveroo and the like.
The number of Australian Company Number (ACN) registrations in 2016 also rose from the year before, up 1 per cent to 244,795, although this growth was way down on the 9-10 per cent increases in ACNs seen in every other year since 2012, despite the Turnbull Government's 'ideas boom' rhetoric.
The suburbs with the highest total ABN and ACN registrations were the three Eastern seaboard capital city CBDs, but their fringes also buzzed with activity. For instance the suburbs of Werribee and Hoppers Crossing, within the Wyndham City municipality in Melbourne's west, together became home to more ABNs and ACNs in 2016 than Brisbane.
This doesn't surprise Veromo co-founder Luscheyne Mellon.
"If you look back a few years ago, Lend Lease built a billion dollar urban community in Werribee. What follows next is only natural, the need for better infrastructure, transportation, schools, training colleges and services to support that growing community," she said.
"The net effect is job creation and you've got small businesses blooming."
In western Sydney, a dearth of salaried jobs for a fast-growing population saw ABN and ACN registrations boom in Liverpool (6912) and Westmead (5752), threatening the status of Surry Hills (5991) as the city's startup hub.
NSW was still easily leading Victoria for all forms of business registration combined, said Ms Mellon, although the gap between the two states was closing.
"NSW has almost double the larger companies, but only just beats Victoria for individual/sole trader entities," Ms Mellon said.
"This outlines the different business environments and cultures between the states and cities. Sydney is the global and financial hub of Australia, with a higher concentration of large, multinational corporations in industries like financial services, law and engineering.
"Melbourne on the other hand is the cultural hub of Australia – an environment which is more conducive to small businesses supporting artists, restaurants, cafes and freelancers."
