Reasons for the lower employment rates include lower levels of education, training and skill levels (human capital), poorer health, living in areas with fewer labour market opportunities, higher levels of arrest and interactions with the criminal justice system, discrimination, and lower levels of job retention .
Poor government policies for education and welfare have made many Aboriginal people unemployable, says Prof Helen Hughes from the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS). The lack of education in remote areas contributes most to unemployment there, while welfare dependence does the same in capital cities.
High unemployment and lasting impacts from colonialism have caused low income in Aboriginal homes. Today, people often find that Aboriginal communities in non-rural areas live off welfare in crowded housing.
Overview of Indigenous employment
Comparing the most recent data for people aged 15–64 with earlier surveys: between 2007–08 and 2018–19, the overall employment rate for Indigenous Australians dropped from 54% to 49%, while the rate for non-Indigenous Australians remained stable at roughly 76% (Figure 1)
OCCUPATION(a)
In the Major Cities, Indigenous people were most likely to be employed as Labourers (16%) and Clerical and Administrative Workers (16%). In contrast, Indigenous people employed in Very Remote areas were most likely to be Labourers (44%) and Community and Personal Service Workers (17%).
Reasons for the lower employment rates include lower levels of education, training and skill levels (human capital), poorer health, living in areas with fewer labour market opportunities, higher levels of arrest and interactions with the criminal justice system, discrimination, and lower levels of job retention .
In the 2018–19 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (Health Survey), an estimated 60% (299,700) of Indigenous Australians of working age—those aged 15–64—were participating in the labour force, and 49% (243,780) were employed.
Employment is critical to the health and prosperity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For all Australians, employment offers social and economic benefits that flow to individuals, families, communities and the economy as a whole.
Very few histories describe Aboriginal people as workers, producers, industrialists or taxpayers. However, soon after Invasion, Aboriginal people in Sydney were involved in work. They were sometimes paid but were often not; they were sometimes indentured, but they were always present.
There is a long history of Indigenous workers being denied equal pay in Australia. Before 1966 it was common in many industries for Indigenous workers to often be paid around one-third of what non-Indigenous workers were paid. Many Indigenous workers were forced to work for rations.
But Aboriginal people are subject to the same social security laws and entitled to no more (and no less) government sponsorship than any other Australian. There has never been a government program that distributed free houses or cars, and Aboriginal students have to pay for university like everyone else.
The report finds that inadequate funding for homelessness services, limited crisis and transitional accommodation, the shortage of affordable housing, barriers to housing access and inadequate attention to tenancy sustainment create a revolving door of housing and homelessness for many Indigenous people.
shorter life expectancy. higher rates of infant mortality. poorer health. lower levels of education and employment.
Finding a job as an immigrant is harder as employers often favour local experience and study credentials. Employers will tend to favour credentials from their home country over those earned elsewhere. It mostly depends on how specialised the jobs you're looking at are.
Australia does not have enough workers to meet demand. The number of job vacancies is at a record high. Migration, childcare and housing are all factors making it harder for employers to find staff.
Amounts you don't include in your tax return
There are some amounts don't need to be include as income in your tax return. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Indigenous holding entities don't need to pay income tax or capital gains tax on native title payments or benefits.
Many Aboriginal people who worked for white people did not receive their wages directly. Their bosses only gave them 'pocket money' while from 1897 to the late 1970s their wages were 'administered' for them by government or police authorities. In Western Australia wages were under "total government control" until 1968.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees can enhance your business by providing different perspectives, experience and knowledge. They can contribute to cross-cultural awareness in your workplace, which is important when communicating with people from diverse backgrounds and engaging with the local community.
They want a "a space of our own, free from influence of government". Land rights. Recognition that Aboriginal people have always maintained a property right in land and the natural resources according to their law and customs. They want an acknowledgement that Australia has not been settled.
"(Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country) is a very important way of giving Aboriginal people back their place in society … It's paying respect, in a formal sense, and following traditional custom in a symbolic way.”
The complex set of spiritual values developed by Aboriginal people and that are part of the Dreamtime include 'self-control, self-reliance, courage, kinship and friendship, empathy, a holistic sense of oneness and interdependence, reverence for land and Country and a responsibility for others.
Indigenous Australians live in all parts of the nation, from cities to remote tropical and desert areas. Indigenous Australians are more likely to live in urban and regional areas than remote areas, though the proportion of the total population who are Indigenous is generally higher in more remote areas.
Based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) projections, the number of Indigenous Australians in 2021 was estimated to be 881,600.
In the 2016 Census of Population and Housing (Census), the proportion of Indigenous Australians aged 20–24 who had attained a Year 12 or equivalent (Certificate III or above) was 63% (Closing the Gap Target 5 - external site opens in new window ).