Strong economic participation and development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25–64 who are employed to 62%.

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25–64 years who are employed.

The measure is defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25–64 years who are employed

Denominator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the population aged 25–64 years

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

15 June 2023

Target

A high or increasing proportion is desirable.

Name: ABS Census of Population and Housing, Census Table Builder (Basic)

Frequency: Five‑yearly

Documentation (links): www.abs.gov.au/census

Provider name: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Provider area: Census

2016

2021

2031

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by sex.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by remoteness area.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by Index of Relative Socio‑economic Disadvantage (IRSD) quintile.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by disability status.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by age.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by level of education.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by type of employment.

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100.

Counting rules

The data is for all Australian residents enumerated in the Census that reported having a usual residence in Australia.

Geographical variables are based on a person’s place of usual residence (on Census night).

Includes (both numerator and denominator):

• people who were employed full‑time (worked 35 hours or more), part‑time, or who were employed but were away from work (did not work any hours in the week prior to Census night or did not state their number of hours worked)
• Australian total includes Other Territories

Excludes (both numerator and denominator):

• people for whom labour force status was ‘not stated’ or unknown or inadequately described
• overseas visitors
• people for whom Indigenous status was not stated. (Data on the number of people whose Indigenous status was not stated is provided for context).

Disaggregations:

Sex refers to a person’s biological characteristics. The 2021 Census allowed all respondents to select from three response options for the sex question: male, female and non‑binary sex. Where a respondent has provided a male or female response and a non‑binary sex response, the male or female response was used to determine a binary sex variable. Otherwise, sex was derived by a statistical process using random allocation.

Remoteness area is classified according to the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) using SA1 as the building block. For people with incomplete/invalid or missing address information, the ABS imputes the place of usual residence. The non‑response rate at the SA1 level was 4.4% in 2021. Remoteness area disaggregations exclude ‘Migratory – Offshore – Shipping’ and ‘No usual address’. Please see the How to interpret the data page for more information.

Socio‑economic status of the locality is classified according to the ABS Socio‑Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA): Index of Relative Socio‑economic Disadvantage (IRSD), using SA1 as the building block. For people with incomplete/invalid or missing address information, the ABS will impute the place of usual residence. The data is reported by IRSD quintile, which is determined at the Australian level and excludes persons with unknown or unavailable SEIFA score. Some individual geographic areas were excluded from SEIFA for various reasons, such as low population or high non‑response to certain Census questions. Please see the How to interpret the data page for more information.

Disability is classified according to core activity need for assistance. The data is only available for people with a profound or severe core activity limitation. Disability data sourced from the Census is based on four questions to identify need for assistance and may not be fully comparable with data from other sources. See www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4431.0.55.002 for more information. (Data for people whose ‘need for assistance with core activities’ was not stated is provided for context.)

Age is derived from a person’s date of birth. If date of birth is not stated, an age value is imputed by the ABS.

Level of education is derived from the highest level of educational attainment, whether it be a school or non‑school qualification (persons with inadequately described or not stated educational attainment have been included as a category combined with no educational attainment).

Type of employment classifies employed persons as working full time (worked 35 hours or more), part time or away from work in the week prior to Census night. Persons who were employed but away from work includes persons who were employed but did not work any hours in the week prior to Census night or did not state the number of hours worked.

Extraction

Census Table Builder (Basic) – Employment, Income and Education: INGP X Main ASGS (UR) X LFSP X AGE5P

[Disaggregations: SEXP; REMOTE (UR); IRSD; ASSNP; AGE5P; HEAP; LFSP].

All data values have been randomly adjusted using perturbation to avoid the release of confidential data. Proportions/rates calculated for small populations should be used with caution.

In 2016 and 2021 data, people who participated in Community Development Program (CDP) received income support payments directly from the government and were not considered to be in an employer/employee relationship with their provider. They were classified as not employed unless they had a non‑CDP job.