Institutional factors underpinning Indigenous labour force participation: The role of the CDEP scheme and education

Abstract

Labour force participation and attachment to the labour market is a key determinant of economic well being. It is surprising, therefore, how little analysis there is of Indigenous labour supply. In order to address this omission, data from the 1994 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey (NATSIS) and all the censuses 1981 and 1996 are used to highlight the role of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme in augmenting Indigenous labour supply. From its humble beginnings in 1977, the CDEP scheme grew slowly at first, before expanding rapidly away from the original strongholds in remote Australia in the mid to late 1980s. Indeed, the scheme more than quadrupled in size between 1986 and 1991. A second, less obvious, internal expansion in the number of CDEP scheme jobs occurred as a result of the Spicer review in 1997. Despite this, the CDEP scheme still only provides a small proportion of Indigenous employment in major Australian cities. Show more