Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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UNEMPLOYMENT



In 2011, the unemployment rate for the Indigenous population decreased 2 points to 16%, with an estimated 33,800 unemployed Indigenous people aged 15 years and over.

The unemployment rate for Indigenous people was 13% in Major Cities, 19% in Regional areas and 15% in remote areas. The unemployment rate for Indigenous males living in Major cities decreased to 12% whereas the rate for Indigenous females living in Major cities remained relatively steady at 14%. In Regional areas, the unemployment rate for Indigenous males fell 8 points to 20% whereas the unemployment rate for Indigenous females living in Regional areas increased 1 point to 19%.

Estimates of unemployment for Remote areas were subject to high sampling errors and should therefore be used with caution. Furthermore, Remote areas generally have an underdeveloped labour market where people often do not actively look for work and therefore are not classified as unemployed, even though they are not working and might indeed prefer to work if the labour market were different.