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EDUCATION AND INDIVIDUAL INCOME


EDUCATION

Education is positively linked to employment prospects and higher income both for self-employed people and employees. According to the 2006 Census, 3,600 self-employed Indigenous people (or 55%) and 45,000 employees (or 41%) had a non-school qualification.

• Nearly one in three self-employed Indigenous people had a Certificate level III or IV qualification (30%); almost double the proportion of Indigenous employees (16%).
• Self-employed Indigenous people were also more likely than Indigenous employees to have a Diploma, Bachelor degree or higher qualification (15% compared with 12%).
• Consequently, self-employed Indigenous people were slightly less likely than Indigenous employees to have only completed Year 12 (9% compared with 15%).

Selected employment types by Indigenous status and educational attainment(a)
		Indigenous			Non-Indigenous
		Self-employed	Employees	Total employed	Self-employed	Employees	Total employed
		%	%	%	%	%	%
Has a non-school qualification
	Diploma, Advanced Diploma and higher degrees(b)	15.0	12.4	12.4	28.8	33.2	32.2
	Certificate level III or IV	30.0	16.5	17.1	26.5	17.2	18.7
	Certificate levels I and II	1.3	2.9	2.8	0.8	1.5	1.4
	Total with a non-school qualification(c)	55.5	41.3	42.1	63.3	59.0	59.5
No non-school qualification
	Year 12 or equivalent	8.9	14.7	14.3	13.0	18.2	17.3
	Year 10 or 11	22.2	27.7	27.4	17.4	17.7	17.8
	Year 9 or below(d)	12.7	15.4	15.2	5.9	4.7	5.0
	Total(e)	44.5	58.7	57.9	36.7	41.0	40.5
Employed persons(f)		100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
(a) Persons aged 15-64 years.
(b) Includes Bachelor Degree, Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate and Postgraduate Degree.
(c) Includes persons with Certificate level nfd and those for whom level of non-school qualification was not stated or inadequately described.
(d) Includes persons who did not go to school.
(e) Includes persons for whom highest year of schooling was not stated.
(f) Excludes persons who were still at school.
Source: 2006 Census of Population and Housing

• The median individual weekly income (from all sources) for full-time self-employed Indigenous people was $749 compared with $704 for full-time Indigenous employees.
• For self-employed males, the median individual weekly income was $802, higher by $87 than the median income of male employees ($715).
• By contrast, for self-employed females, the median individual weekly income was $582, lower by $105 than the median income of female employees ($687).
• Compared with employees, the above pattern of higher income for self-employed males and lower income for self-employed females was evident for Indigenous people both with and without qualifications.
• Among non-Indigenous people with a qualification, the incomes of employees were considerably higher than the corresponding incomes of self-employed people.
• Median incomes for non-Indigenous people were higher than those for Indigenous people with the same employment type and level of educational attainment.

Median individual weekly income, Persons employed full-time(a)(b)(c)
			Indigenous		Non-Indigenous
			Self-employed	Employees	Self-employed	Employees
Males
	Has a non-school qualification(d)	$	865	834	981	1 105
	No non-school qualification	$	715	634	771	764
	Total	$	802	715	909	957
Females
	Has a non-school qualification(d)	$	603	766	763	919
	No non-school qualification	$	566	596	614	681
	Total	$	582	687	691	809
Persons
	Has a non-school qualification(d)	$	819	798	944	1 021
	No non-school qualification	$	667	620	727	729
	Total	$	749	704	860	897
Persons		no.	4 032	58 384	927 327	4 525 236
(a) Persons aged 15-64 years.
(b) Excludes persons who were still at school.
(c) Excludes persons who did not report their income.
(d) Includes persons for whom level of non-school qualification was not stated or inadequately described.
Source: 2006 Census of Population and Housing