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Equivalence scales attempt to control for family size and composition, as well as the relative costs of maintaining various family types. The 1995 National health survey is used to examine how variations in the assumptions underlying equivalence scales, such as household composition and economies of size, affect poverty measures for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The main finding is that the assumptions about the costs of children can increase Indigenous poverty by a factor of two-and-a-half. Another finding is that the choice of equivalence scales can induce large threshold effects that influence the composition of poverty.

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Indigenous people are far more likely to be discouraged from looking for work than non-Indigenous Australians. An understanding of the microeconomic factors that discourage particular workers is important in addressing the labour force disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians. This paper focuses on the interaction between labour supply and demand, and, in particular, on the factors that lead to Indigenous people who want to work not looking for work and thus remaining outside the workforce. A discouraged worker is defined in the paper as someone who wants to work but is not actively looking for a job. The analysis uses data from the 1994 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey (NATSIS). In conventional economic models of labour supply, social environmental factors play a limited part but this analysis includes cultural and social environmental factors. Cultural factors are found to be particularly significant in determining Indigenous labour supply although they are not the only factors affecting labour supply. Age, educational attainment and family factors emerge as more important. Implications for policy are that Indigenous Australians want to work as much as non-Indigenous Australians and policies aimed at increasing the demand for their labour are vital. In addition to addressing demand, attention needs to be paid to cultural and social factors. Show less

This paper uses self-reported data to illustrate how Indigenous Australians experience discrimination and how it is potentially associated with poor labour market outcomes. After giving consideration to what factors may lead people to report being discriminated against, an empirical analysis of self-reported discrimination is presented, utilising data from the 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS). Correlations between discrimination experienced in different settings are identified, and the association of discrimination with human capital and other characteristics is presented. The results suggest that the main process driving the reporting of discrimination is the extent to which an individual is exposed to situations in which they interact with potential discriminators. This could mean that some Indigenous Australians decrease their labour supply in order to avoid potentially adverse (discriminatory) situations. Implications for understanding Indigenous disadvantage are discussed along with recommendations for both addressing discrimination and enhancing the resilience of individuals facing discrimination.

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This report draws on data from the 1986, 1991 and 1996 Censuses in order to analyse the probability of employment and labour force participation for indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. It finds that the factors related to the probability of employment and labour force participation are different for each population. When calculating employment ratios, the research does not count employment in the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, which accounts for nearly 25% of indigenous employment. Some of the main findings of the research include: that increased educational attainment by non-indigenous Australians in the period of 1986 to 1996 has resulted in improved employment levels, yet increased educational attainment by indigenous Australians has seen little change in employment levels; region of residence is not significant to the probability of employment for indigenous Australians, yet is an important determinant for the non-indigenous; an increase in the proportion of the cohort with a university degree plays an important role in increasing the probability of employment for indigenous males and females, yet is not significant for non-indigenous Australians; and that for indigenous females, marital status is found to be a significant determinant for the probability of participating in the labour force. The paper concludes that indigenous employment disadvantage can be attributed to more than a lack of educational attainment and low levels of labour demand in certain regions, but is also due to other differences like schooling quality, assimilation, and discrimination. Show less

‘Practical’ reconciliation is a government policy that attempts to address the immediate needs of Indigenous people in areas such as employment, health, housing and education. As a way to measure the success of such a policy, this paper analyses recent trends in the engagement of Indigenous people with the Australian education system between 1986 and 2001. The authors present a cohort analysis of changes in educational participation and an analysis of the differences between the level and type of educational qualifications of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians over the last four censuses. The key finding is that while there have been some absolute improvements in Indigenous educational outcomes over the period 1986 to 2001, these gains are not as significant when measured relative to non-Indigenous outcomes. This poor performance in comparison with the non-Indigenous population is revealed in the proportion of the population with post-secondary qualifications and again in the proportion of Indigenous youth staying at school. The results confirm that the Indigenous population remains severely disadvantaged in the education sector. In younger age groups the non-Indigenous population has a higher participation rate in post-secondary education than the Indigenous population. However, older Indigenous people are actually more likely to be enrolled in a post-secondary course than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Show less

Macroeconomic shocks and the policy responses to those shocks have significant effects on Australia's economy. However, research into impacts of such shocks on the Indigenous labour force is limited. This paper explores how the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 crisis is likely to affect Indigenous labour market outcomes in future. While this paper briefly examines the immediate consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for Indigenous economic outcomes, it discusses the likely longer-run consequences for Indigenous employment at some length. The sectoral concentration of Indigenous employment, the relatively high levels of casual employment and the relatively young age profile of the Indigenous population may increase Indigenous exposure to significant economic risks. Indigenous business disproportionately employ Indigenous workers, but such businesses are concentrated in small to medium enterprises that may be sensitive to recessionary conditions, especially if economic uncertainty leads to a more generalised financial crisis involving liquidity constraints. Recent history demonstrates that Indigenous employment rates have increased only gradually in the long period of macroeconomic growth leading up to the pandemic. Historical disadvantage, discrimination and geographical constraints are important drivers of the dynamics of Indigenous labour market disadvantage, that limit educational attainment and ability to find work. For those Indigenous people who secure employment, it can be difficult to retain employment.

COVID-19 is likely to lead to an intense period of structural adjustment in the economy, and it is important for the Indigenous community and businesses to position themselves to take advantage of potential opportunities and minimise potential risks. The ongoing digital divide may be a particular problem for Indigenous people accessing work remotely. Poor access to the internet of a substantial number of Indigenous households may also exacerbate access to remote education. Such issues have important implications for addressing Indigenous disadvantage in future.

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The idea of pathways indicates many possible journeys to some destination or outcome. Hence, even if everyone agreed that Indigenous school leavers should be moving towards 'productive' employment, it is not easy to talk about 'what works' as there are different paths that may suit different people. Indeed given the diverse educational and life experiences of Indigenous people, it would be folly to suggest that there was one path that suits everyone. In any case, as the old joke goes, 'the shortest distance between two points is always under construction'. This resource sheet focuses on the 'detours' that can enhance (or obstruct) the attainment of productive employment outcomes.

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Indigenous Australian females are under-represented in the Australian labour force and in employment. According to the Population Census of 2006, 49 per cent of Indigenous females were in the labour force compared with 58 per cent of other Australian females. The unemployment rate for Indigenous Australian females was almost three times the rate for other Australian females, 15.4 per cent compared with 5.3 per cent. An understanding of the reasons for the poor labour market performance of Indigenous females is an important first step in improving the economic status of this disadvantaged group of Australians. This paper uses data from a survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (conducted between August 2002 and April 2003), to consider possible determinants of labour force status for Indigenous females. The survey enables [the authors] to use two potentially significant determinants of labour force status that are not available together from other sources - indicators of fertility and the interaction with the criminal justice system. [The] estimates show that high levels of fertility and having been arrested have a negative effect on the probability of participation for Indigenous females. The paper concludes with some policy recommendations for raising the level of participation among Indigenous Australian females.

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Despite several policy efforts to promote economic participation by Indigenous Australians, they continue to have low participation rates compared to non-Indigenous Australians. This study decomposes the gap in labour market attachment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in non-remote areas, combining two separate data sources in a novel way to obtain access to richer information than was previously possible. It shows that among women at least two thirds of the gap can be attributed to differences in the observed characteristics between the two populations. For men, the differences in observed characteristics of the two populations can account for 36 to 47 per cent of the gap. A detailed decomposition shows that lower education, worse health, and larger families (particularly for women) explain the lower labour market attachment of Indigenous Australians to a substantial extent. Compared with previous studies, this study is able to explain a larger proportion of the gap in employment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people due to being able to include a larger set of explanatory variables.

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While recent research has found that there has been a substantial increase in Indigenous mainstream employment since the mid-1990s, there has been relatively little regional analysis of mainstream employment or the extent to which the nature of Indigenous employment has altered in what has been a period of substantial change in the Australian labour market. The aim of this paper is to build on the existing research using the 2006 and 2011 Censuses to provide a more disaggregated analysis of any changes in the nature of labour market outcomes for Indigenous Australians. One of the new findings in this paper is that the employment of Indigenous youth (15-24 years) in remote areas is lower than that of Indigenous youth in non-remote areas, but older Indigenous residents in remote and non-remote areas have more similar employment rates. While the mining boom has had a positive impact on some Indigenous people, in national terms the vast majority of the increases in Indigenous employment between 2006 and 2011 have been in other industries. There is no magic bullet in closing the employment gap between Indigenous and other Australians. Policy needs to facilitate Indigenous participation in the mainstream economy by assisting Indigenous people to be work-ready, especially improving the skills of the Indigenous population so that they are matched to those required by employers.

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