Social enterprises contribute over $20b to the Australian economy and employ as many people as the mining industry, a new report finds, encouraging greater government support.

Social Enterprise Australia has commissioned their first report - Business for good: The size and economic contribution of social enterprise in Australia. The report also calls for government to work with our sector on a national strategy to unlock the full potential of social enterprise.

What were the key findings?

• Australia has over 12,000 social enterprises.
  
• Social enterprises contribute $21.3 billion to the Australian economy and account for 1% of GDP.
• Over 206,000 people are employed in Australian social enterprises. That's one in 60 jobs, or 1.6% of the workforce. It is about the same number of people as Arts and Recreation Services or the Mining Industry.

What can the Federal Government do to support social enterprise?

The Federal Government has the opportunity to have a major impact by following examples set by other states and by including social enterprise in their supply chains.

If just 1% of Australia’s $265 billion infrastructure pipeline was spent with social enterprise suppliers, it has the potential to create over 9,000 jobs for the most vulnerable people at risk of long-term unemployment over the next five years. The Australian procurement market is worth more than $600 billion per annum. We estimate that a shift of only 0.2% toward social enterprise, over the next 10 years, could create 26,000 jobs.

Our contribution

Social Traders is here to support the social enterprise sector to grow, including building awareness of the sector and advocating to government. We believe that now is the time to rethink how we can all make a significant and positive impact on our economy and communities.

You can access the full story here and download the full report here.