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There have been a number of labour market programs that have attempted to increase rates of employment of Indigenous Australians by influencing job search behaviour. However, remarkably little is known about the job search behaviour of Indigenous job seekers or how this compares with the job search behaviour of other job seekers. This paper provides the first ever baseline of data on the job search behaviour of Indigenous job seekers and how it compares to the job search of non-Indigenous job seekers. Clear differences in the job search behaviour between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are apparent. Indigenous Australians rely disproportionately on friends and relatives as a source of information about jobs, although their networks tend to have fewer employed members and therefore are of less value than those of non-Indigenous job seekers. Non-Indigenous job seekers are more likely to use more proactive search methods than are Indigenous job seekers.

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There have been a number of labour market programs that have attempted to increase rates of employment of Indigenous Australians by influencing job search behaviour. This paper provides the first ever baseline of data on the job search behaviour of Indigenous job seekers and how it compares to the job search of non-Indigenous job seekers. Clear differences between the job search behaviours of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are apparent. Indigenous Australians rely disproportionately on friends and relatives as a source of information about jobs, although their networks tend to have less employed members, and therefore are less effective than non-Indigenous networks in securing employment. Non-Indigenous job seekers are also more likely to use more proactive search methods than are Indigenous job seekers.

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This 'Topical issue' provides an assessment of the extent to which Indigenous labour force status has changed over the period 1994 to 2008. It finds that over the period 1994 to 2008 the non-CDEP [Community Development Employment Projects] employment rate of the Indigenous population increased from 31.1 per cent to 50.5 per cent. There were increases for both Indigenous men and women. The non-CDEP employment rate increased by 21 percentage points from 37.9 per cent to 58.8 per cent for Indigenous men and by 18 percentage points from 25.0 per cent to 42.9 per cent for Indigenous women. These increases are very substantial: to put them in context, the increase in the employment rate for the working age Australian population as a whole for men during this period increased by five percentage points, and for women it increased by 10 percentage points.

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This analysis uses the only existing large-scale longitudinal survey of Indigenous Australians to examine the effects of job search behaviour over an 18-month period starting from March 1996. Job search methods were not generally related to the probability of finding and retaining employment when a range of other personal and regional factors are taken into account. Search intensity (as measured by the number of jobs applied for) had a significant effect on the prospect of finding employment, but was unrelated to the probability of job retention.

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Recent reporting suggests that there has been no growth in Indigenous employment since the mid-2000s, or even that employment has decreased slightly. Such reports focus on changes in a measure of employment which includes Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) participants. However, when CDEP is excluded from the employment measure a very different picture emerges - one of a strong and sustained increase in non-CDEP employment since 1994. Failure to clearly focus on non-CDEP employment can lead to misleading conclusions about employment growth and the effectiveness of government policy aimed at increasing non-CDEP employment. This paper uses census data combined with CDEP administrative data to produce estimates of changes in non-CDEP employment for Indigenous Australian between 1996 and 2011.

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One important and under-researched aspect of labour market policy is the extent to which policy interventions are effective in modifying job search behaviour. Furthermore, there is little extant research on whether certain job search behaviours lead to labour market success. Our analysis uses the only existing largescale longitudinal survey of Indigenous Australians to examine the effects of job search behaviour over an 18-month period from March 1996. One major finding is that the introduction of the Job Search Diary during the survey period was effective in increasing search intensity - but this increase in intensity did not result in increased employment rates. Another finding is that the job search methods used were not generally related to the probability of finding and retaining employment when a range of other personal and regional factors are taken into account. Those with a greater level of search intensity (as measured by the number of jobs applied for) at the first wave of the survey did have a significantly higher probability of finding employment than those searching less intensely. However, search intensity is unrelated to the probability of job retention. Other factors, such as educational attainment, health status, region of residence and having been arrested, account for the majority of labour market success (or lack of it) among unemployed Indigenous job seekers.

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This paper provides evidence on changes in the labour force status of Indigenous and other Australians since the mid-1990s, a period of strong macroeconomic growth. The paper expands the standard definitions of labour supply to consider marginally attached workers - people who want to work but who are not currently looking for work. The results suggest that while education is still one of the most important factors, future progress in increasing Indigenous employment requires policy address labour supply issues that discourage people from looking for work, including the ongoing high level of Indigenous interaction with the criminal justice system.

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This paper provides evidence on changes in the labour force status of Indigenous and other Australians since the mid-1990s, a period of strong macroeconomic growth. The paper expands the standard definitions of labour supply to consider marginally attached workers - people who want to work but who are not currently looking for work. The results suggest that a period of strong demand for labour and improvements in Indigenous education levels are important factors in the strong increases in Indigenous employment rates. However, future progress in increasing Indigenous employment and narrowing the employment gap is likely to require that labour supply issues that discourage people from looking for work - including labour market discrimination and the ongoing high level of Indigenous interaction with the criminal justice system - are addressed.

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This paper uses data from the Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset to conduct the first representative analysis of labour force transitions for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The main finding is that Indigenous females and males are more than 10 percentage points more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to move from employment in 2006 to non-employment in 2011. Indigenous females had relatively high employment instability, which was probably largely driven by the increased probability of part-time employed Indigenous women leaving employment between 2006 and 2011. For Indigenous males, the findings reflect the high rate of movement out of employment from both part-time and full-time employment. Younger Indigenous Australians and those living in remote areas have a substantially lower flow into employment and a higher flow out of employment than their non-Indigenous counterparts. This paper considers several possible explanations for these transitions, such as marginal attachment to the labour force, job search methods that rely on family and friends, labour market segmentation where Indigenous workers tend to secure less stable jobs (because of educational attainment, skills and, possibly, discrimination) and the relative scarcity of Indigenous-friendly workplaces.

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The availability of the initial labour force estimates for the 1996 Census allows us to take stock of the long run changes in the Australian workforce. This article presents cohort analysis of changes in labour force status over the last three Censuses for the indigenous and non-indigenous populations. In general, the macro trends in the non-indigenous workforce since 1986 are reflected in indigenous employment and unemployment. The major exception to this rule is in the public sector where indigenous workers have actually increased their share in employment, despite a significant winding back of employment among government and statutory employers. A further curtailment in this sector will probably have an adverse impact on indigenous employment outcomes. Also, a fall in non-CDEP scheme employment among younger indigenous cohorts occurred despite relative and absolute increases in educational attainment which presumably improved the labour market competitiveness of indigenous youth.

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