Self-employed Indigenous Australians in the labour market

Abstract

Self-employment has been regarded as an important avenue for economic advancement for some groups with limited opportunities in the mainstream labour market. It has, however, been of minor significance to Indigenous Australians. In 1991, only 2.2 per cent of the Indigenous working-aged population were self-employed compared with 11.1 per cent of other Australians. This paper presents a comparison of the characteristics of self-employed Indigenous people with Indigenous wage and salary earners and other self-employed Australians. In comparison with Indigenous wage and salary earners, self-employed Indigenous people were more likely to be employed as tradespersons and to work in the private sector. They had lower levels of education than other self-employed Australians and were under-represented among managers and administrators and professionals.