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WORK


INDUSTRY AND OCCUPATION OF EMPLOYMENT

According to the 2006 Census:

• One in four self-employed Indigenous people worked in the Construction industry (26%) and around one in ten worked in the Transport, Postal and Warehousing industries (9%).
• By comparison, one in five self-employed non-Indigenous people worked in the Construction industry (20%) and around one in ten worked in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industries (11%).

Selected employment types by industry of employment(a)(b)
	Indigenous		Non-Indigenous
	Self-employed	Employees	Self-employed	Employees
Industry	%	%	%	%
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing	6.3	2.8	7.4	1.5
Mining	0.8	2.3	0.3	1.4
Manufacturing	6.6	8.0	7.8	11.5
Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services	0.8	1.0	0.4	1.2
Construction	25.7	6.2	19.9	5.7
Wholesale Trade	3.1	2.6	4.2	4.6
Retail Trade	7.4	8.1	9.8	12.1
Accommodation and Food Services	4.1	6.8	4.9	6.8
Transport, Postal and Warehousing	8.6	3.9	6.0	4.6
Information Media and Telecommunications	1.4	1.1	1.3	2.2
Financial and Insurance Services	1.4	1.2	2.7	4.3
Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services	1.3	1.0	2.2	1.6
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services	6.1	2.2	11.0	6.1
Administrative and Support Services	5.7	3.8	4.7	2.9
Public Administration and Safety	1.4	19.1	0.6	8.1
Education and Training	3.3	9.2	2.4	9.1
Health Care and Social Assistance	6.5	15.9	6.0	11.8
Arts and Recreation Services	3.0	1.6	1.6	1.4
Other Services	6.4	3.3	6.9	3.2
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
(a) Aged 15-64 years.
(b) Excludes persons for whom industry was inadequately described.
Source: 2006 Census of Population and Housing

• For non-Indigenous people, self-employment rates were lower in major cities (15%) than in regional and remote areas (both 19%).
• By contrast, self-employment rates for Indigenous people were lower in remote areas (2%) than in regional areas (6%) and major cities (7%).
• Among self-employed people in remote areas, only 15% of Indigenous people worked in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industries (e.g. farming) compared with 44% of non-Indigenous people.

Self-employed persons(a) by remoteness

• One in four self-employed Indigenous people (26%) were working in the Technicians and Trades Workers group of occupations.
• A much higher proportion of self-employed Indigenous people than employees were managers (18% compared with 5%).

Selected employment types by occupation, Indigenous persons aged 15-64 years

• A higher proportion of Indigenous self-employed people than employees were engaged in full-time work (i.e. 35 hours or more per week) (68% compared with 59%).
• Indigenous males who were self-employed were more likely than Indigenous male employees to work full-time (76% compared with 68%).
• For both groups of employed Indigenous females, around half worked full-time and half part-time.
• The average number of hours per week worked by self-employed Indigenous people was 41 hours and for employees, was 34 hours. The patterns were similar for non-Indigenous people with an average of 42 hours for those self-employed, compared with 36 hours for employees.
• One in three self-employed Indigenous people (34%) and one in ten employees (11%) worked 49 hours or more per week.

Work patterns by employment type, Indigenous status and sex(a)(b)
		Self-employed		Employees
		Full-time	Part-time	Full-time	Part-time
Indigenous
	Males (%)	76.4	23.6	67.9	32.1
	Females (%)	51.1	48.9	48.9	51.1
	Persons (%)	68.4	31.6	58.8	41.2
	Total (no.)	4 134	1 915	59 571	41 750
Non-Indigenous
	Males (%)	82.2	17.8	83.2	16.8
	Females (%)	50.6	49.4	53.8	46.2
	Persons (%)	72.2	27.8	68.8	31.2
	Total (no.)	948 387	365 470	4 587 481	2 079 653
(a) Persons aged 15-64 years.
(b) Excludes persons who were employed and away from work.
Source: 2006 Census of Population and Housing