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Understanding the challenges and opportunities
Challenges and opportunities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are a significant and important population within Queensland. At 30 June 2006, Queensland's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population was estimated to be 146,429 or around 3.6% of the state's population. Proportionately this places Queensland with the second highest Indigenous population in Australia with 28.3% of the national population, marginally lower than New South Wales' share of 28.7%.
The Council of Australian Governments commissioned the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision to produce a regular report, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage, outlining performance against key indicators for Indigenous disadvantage. The Steering Committee has produced three reports to date (in 2003, 2005 and 2007) which show significant employment and training achievements by Indigenous Queenslanders. However, the reports highlighted that more needs to be done to support Indigenous Queenslanders to gain employment and access to better incomes, particularly in rural and remote areas of the state and across the breadth of industries and occupations in Queensland.
The issues impacting on gaining better employment and training outcomes for Indigenous Queenslanders are complex and dynamic and include:
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A higher rate of unemployment. The 2007 Productivity Commission's report indicates that while the Indigenous unemployment rate fell from 20.5% in 2002 to 12.8% in 2006, this is almost 3 times higher than the overall rate for Queensland (4.5%). The reported Indigenous unemployment rate would be higher if the effect of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) was removed.
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Labour force participation rate. The Indigenous labour force participation rate is also lower amongst Indigenous people (59.3%) than the rate for non- Indigenous people (66.7%).
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Over-representation in low skilled jobs. 25.6% of Indigenous people worked as labourers compared with 11.6% of non-Indigenous people at the time of the 2006 Census.
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Average hours worked. Looking at employment outside of CDEP, Indigenous people work on average 8.9 hours per week compared to an average of 17.5 hours for Queenslanders as a whole.
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Under-representation in higher level jobs. Managers and professionals are the main occupations in which Indigenous people are the least represented. Based on data from the 2001 Census of Population and Housing, the Partnerships Queensland: 2006 Baseline Report states that Indigenous Queenslanders were only one-third as likely to hold a managerial position as non-Indigenous Queenslanders.
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Lower median individual income. At the time of the 2006 Census median individual income for Indigenous Queenslanders was calculated to be $318 per week compared to $481 per week for non-Indigenous Queenslanders.
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Limited literacy and numeracy skills. The most frequently cited barrier to positive training and employment outcomes for Indigenous Queenslanders is limited literacy and numeracy skills.
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Poorer education outcomes. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students represented 1.5% of the total number of higher education students in Queensland in 2004 and were most likely to be enrolled in social and cultural courses. In 2006, approximately 65% of Indigenous people had completed Year 10 or higher compared to 80% of the non-Indigenous population. Approximately, 65% of Indigenous people aged 15 years and over have no post school qualification compared to 52% for non-Indigenous people.
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Participation in lower level training. Around 32% of Indigenous VET students enrolled in Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level I or II courses, compared with 19.7% of non-Indigenous students. 30.4% of Indigenous students were enrolled in AQF level III or IV courses, compared with 42% for non- Indigenous students.
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Poorer health outcomes. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults were 3.2 times more likely to be admitted to hospital for chronic disease than their non-Indigenous peers.
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Over-representation in the criminal justice system. In June 2005, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 17 to 24 years were between 11.5 and 13.9 times more likely to be in prison than non- Indigenous young people. Adults were between 8.8 to ten times more likely to be imprisoned than non- Indigenous adults.
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Lower income security and higher housing stress. Indigenous Queenslanders were more likely to experience financial stress (53.9%) than non- Indigenous Queenslanders (14.6%). 20.8% of Indigenous Queenslanders reside in overcrowded households.
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Location. 30% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders live in major cities, 48% live in regional areas and 22% live in remote or very remote areas with 13% living in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Shire Councils, the majority of which are situated in Far North Queensland. In major cities and regional centres, a higher proportion of Indigenous Queenslanders reside in areas where general labour force participation rates are lower than average and unemployment is higher than average. Opportunities for rural dwellers continue to be affected by the lengthy drought.
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Employment by sector. Indigenous people are significantly more likely to be employed in the public sector (33.1%) compared to non-Indigenous (16.5%). Indigenous employment in the private sector decreases with remoteness from 59.3% in non-remote areas to 41.2% in remote areas.
Key labour market factors
Key labour market factors presenting opportunities to enhance labour market participation outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples include:
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Skill shortages. Skills in specific occupations are in short supply posing a risk to the state's capacity to build strongly on current growth. Increasingly, unskilled and low-skilled labour sources are also in short supply. The current positive economic climate driven by mining and construction strongly positions the Positive Dreaming, Solid Futures strategy to provide opportunities for greater employment and training outcomes for Indigenous Queenslanders.
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Labour shortages. In the last five years, labour supply increases have largely mirrored growth in jobs (370,900 and 371,300 respectively). Most of the additional labour supply (60.9%) came from domestic Queenslanders (unemployed, new entrants, re-entrants). In the next five years, the increase in the labour supply is expected to be less than growth in jobs (239,000 and 295,000 respectively).
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Economic growth. Queensland is enjoying consistent economic and jobs growth. Additionally, Queensland has consistently recorded higher participation rates of 67.4% compared to the national average. This gap had broadened to 2.4 percentage points in May 2007 (31 Dec 2006: ABS 1318.3 Qld Statistics - June 2007).
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Demographic opportunities. According to the Partnerships Queensland Baseline report, an estimated 50% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders are aged 19 years or younger compared to 28% of the non-Indigenous population. Due to poor connections with education and training, young Indigenous Queenslanders are more likely to be in the labour market and available for work than their non-Indigenous counterparts. This creates immediate opportunities for young Indigenous Queenslanders to fulfil current labour supply demands.
This page was last updated at Wednesday, August 19, 2009
