Australian workers driven away from big business

Research by KPMG demographer Bernard Salt indicates that small and micro businesses are now Australia’s fastest growing employment sector.

According to the report, baby boomers and Gen Y are leading the movement to escape the corporate world and become their own boss.

Salt’s research was commissioned by nbn and is titled ‘Small Business, Big Thinking: The entrepreneurialism of the Aussie workforce’. The report explores how access to fast broadband and digitally disruptive technologies have prompted the emergence of new entrepreneurial groups, which are driving a shift away from big businesses.

There are now more than 285 new start-up businesses emerging each week in entrepreneurial hotspots such as Riverstone in NSW, Frankston in Victoria, Aspley in Queensland, Mandurah in Western Australia, Hobart in Tasmania and Victor Harbor in South Australia.

“Australians are now empowered to run their business from wherever they want to, access customers from all over the world and to disrupt traditional business models with their innovations, their ideas and their drive,” said Salt.

He believes that nationwide access to fast broadband and new technologies, such as virtual reality and high-definition video conferencing, are driving ‘entrepreneurialism’ among the Australian workforce. People are reinventing themselves as consultants in their field of expertise or taking the plunge to start business ideas of which they have always dreamed.

“Gen Y are rejecting the confines of corporate structures and leading the charge by taking a chance on their own passions in new business ventures, while baby boomers who are no longer shackled down by kids and mortgages are increasingly choosing to spend their last working years reporting to themselves,” said Salt.

There are more than 3 million homes and businesses around the country which can already connect to the National Broadband Network. Every Australian is due to have access by 2020.

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