The Labour Market Position of Aboriginal People in Non-Metropolitan New South Wales

Abstract

This paper analyses the labour market position of Aborigines living in non-metropolitan New South Wales using original data collected between November 1986 and July 1987. The major findings are: (i) only 17.7% of males and 12.3% of females were employed at the time of the survey - the great majority of whom were concentrated in low pay and/or low tenure jobs; (ii) using the definition of unemployment used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in its monthly labour force surveys, unemployment rates are estimated to be 75.9% for males and 65.3% for females; (ill) among those unemployed there was a large core of long term unemployment; two-thirds of all people unemployed at the time of the survey had been unemployed for at least two years; (iv) two factors influencing labour market success were education and access to labour market programs; more highly educated Aborigines were more likely to be employed, as were those who had been involved in a labour market program.