Indigenous Australia/INDA104/Indigenous Employment
The conditions under which Aboriginal people have lived during the last two hundred years to a large extent determine their position in the economic system today, and many of the barriers to equitable and equal participation are difficult to remove. This disadvantage manifests itself in terms of lower incomes, lower employment rates, lower labour force participation rates and higher unemployment rates. In 2006, 57% of the Indigenous population aged between 15 and 64 “was participating in the labour force compared with 76% of the non-Indigenous population. Labour force participation rates for Indigenous peoples declines with remoteness, with a 57% participation rate in major cities compared with 46% in very remote areas” (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2008). In 2009, the unemployment rate for Indigenous Australians was 19% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). Indigenous people also have much lower rates of household income than the non-Indigenous population: “In the 2006 Census, the mean equivalised gross household income for Indigenous persons was $460 per week, which amounted to 62% of the rate for non-Indigenous Australians ($740 per week)” (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2008).
There has been little improvement in this area over the past seven years. In the 2011 Census, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people recorded:
- a labour force participation rate of 51%, the same as in the 2006 Census
- an employment to population ratio of 42%, down from 43% in 2006
- an unemployment rate of 17%, up from 16% in 2006
In 2011, about half (51%) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over were participating in the labour force. The participation rate for non-Indigenous people aged 15 years and over was 13 percentage points higher (64%) than for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ((Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012).
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