Next-generation Indigenous women flying employment flag
Increased domestic employment is driven by women, who are more qualified than men, more likely to go to school, and more likely to evade the justice system.
A new study led by researchers from the Australian National University and the University of Queensland examines nine sets of census results from 1981 to 2021.
It turned out that 93 percent of the increase in domestic employment over four decades was due to women entering the workforce.
While job rates more than doubled from 25.4 percent to 51.3 percent, men experienced an increase of only 4.3 percentage points over the 40-year period.
Increased employment among Indigenous women is closely linked to significant gains in post-secondary education that outpace Indigenous men.
The research found Indigenous women were more likely to complete post-school qualifications as mature-age students.
It pointed to large increases in post-secondary educational attainment for all Australians between 1981 and 2021.
For Australian men, the proportion holding a post-secondary qualification increased from 8.6 per cent to 33.3 per cent, while for Australian women the increase was even greater, from 6.8 per cent to 41.2 per cent.
For Indigenous women, the increase went from 0.7 per cent to 18 per cent, and for Indigenous men, the increase went from 0.6 per cent to 9.3 per cent.
Christian Eva, leader of the study, said employment rates for Indigenous men and women were now nearly equal and the next census could show these rates were higher for women than men.
Primary industry, healthcare and public administration are sectors where more highly skilled Indigenous women find employment, she told AAP.
The study found the employment gap was narrowing in cities and regional areas, but widening sharply in remote Aboriginal communities.
Dr Eva said high incarceration rates were keeping Indigenous men out of jobs, education and skills training.
“If we’re talking about removing large amounts of Indigenous men completely from the labor market, that will have an impact.”
Dr Eva said school absences, homelessness, poor health and substandard housing also contributed to Indigenous men being excluded from skills training, higher education and the labor market.
“A large portion of the indigenous population cannot participate in these things, not because they don’t want to, but because they are excluded for these reasons.”
In 2021, 52.2 per cent of Indigenous people aged 15-64 were employed, while 74.6 per cent of non-Indigenous people were employed.
The research noted that a 5.6 percentage point increase in Indigenous employment between 2016 and 2021 means this is one of the few Closing the Gap targets on track.
