Identifying Important Factors for Closing the Gap in Labour Force Status between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians

Abstract

Despite substantial policy efforts to promote economic participation by Indigenous Australians, they continue to have low participation rates compared with non-Indigenous Australians. This study decomposes the gap in labour market attachment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in non-remote areas, combining two separate data sources in a novel way to obtain access to richer information than was previously possible. It shows that among women over 90 per cent of the gap can be attributed to differences in the observed characteristics between the two populations. For men, the differences in observed characteristics can account for 44-52 per cent of the gap. A detailed decompositio..