Small and medium-sized companies continue to dominate insolvency statistics, with 80 per cent of failed businesses having fewer than 20 employees and less than $100,000 in assets, the Herald Sun reported. Creditors to these companies were also big losers, receiving a maximum of just 11c for every dollar they were owed, according to a new report by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission released yesterday.

The number of people seeking work in Australia fell to a seven-year low, signaling disillusionment with the shrinking opportunities in a resource-rich economy strained by a sharp slowdown in mining investment, The Wall Street Journal reported. Declining participation in the job market helped drive a surprise fall in the unemployment rate to 5.6% in September from 5.8% a month earlier—mirroring a trend in other major developed economies like the U.S., where the jobless rate has fallen as people choose to leave the work force.

Redbank Power Station, the 151-megawatt coal-fired power station in New South Wales' Hunter Valley, has gone into receivership after negotiations on restructuring its $192.7 million of debt broke down as Redbank’s cash flow couldn’t meet its creditors' repayment schedule, the Business Spectator reported. Creditors have been in discussion with Redbank since 2010. “The operation of the power station will continue as normal,” a statement said.

An international study of retirees shows Australians have been the hardest hit by the global financial crisis. The report by HSBC shows the crisis has caused the biggest drop in incomes for Australians entering retirement among the 15 countries surveyed. The reason is the big exposure that superannuation funds have to shares, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The owners of Sydney's Cross City Tunnel are blaming the New South Wales Government for the company having to be placed in voluntary administration, ABC News reported. Cross City Motorway, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, EISER Infrastructure and Leighton Contractors, was placed in voluntary administration on Friday. It could soon be the second time owners of the two-kilometre tunnel linking the western and eastern fringes of Sydney's CBD have gone into receivership.

Australian employers unexpectedly cut payrolls in August as weaker demand discouraged hiring, underscoring the challenge for Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott to boost the nation’s economy. The local currency declined. The number of people employed fell by 10,800 from the previous month, when it declined by a revised 11,400, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. That compares with the median estimate for a 10,000 increase in a Bloomberg News survey of 28 economists. The jobless rate rose to 5.8 percent from 5.7 percent.

For more than two decades, Australia's economy has avoided recession, fed by a mining boom that forged one of the world's richest societies. Now, that once-in-a-generation expansion—stoked by China's demand for Australia's natural resources—could be coming to a close, The Wall Street Journal reported. As China's economic engine slows, sending prices for iron ore and coal sharply lower, Australia is facing an economic dislocation, with unemployment rising to a 12-year high and growth slowing rapidly.

Aston Metals Ltd., a mining exploration company owned by Nathan Tinkler, was placed in receivership as the latest piece of the former billionaire’s empire in Australia to be offered for sale to repay creditors, Bloomberg reported. John Park and Quentin Olde of FTI Consulting Inc. were appointed as receivers in Australia, according to a statement from the West Palm Beach, Florida-based company. Madison Pacific Trust Ltd., representing funds that hold Aston notes, named Park and Olde, according to an e-mail from FTI.

Gippsland Secured Investments is expected to be placed in receivership today, owing 3500 investors about $150 million, after a last-ditch attempt to save the mortgage fund was rejected by the Federal Court, The Australian reported. A group of businessmen with close ties to Gippsland, including former Woolworths chairman John Dahlsen, had been battling to save the company from collapse in recent weeks.

The owner of popular Australian fashion labels Ksubi, Insight and Something Else has been placed in voluntary administration, as the group prepare for a restructure, SmartCompany.com.au reported. Sydney-based company Bleach Group entered administration on August 27. It now has a new corporate ownership thanks to a share placement from an unnamed US private equity group. Bleach Group says the move was motivated by the closure of its Asian-based supply chain. "The need for a voluntary administration... is regrettable," chief executive Mark Byers said in a statement.