Rates of labour force status drawn from the 2001 Census are shown for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents of the Thamarrurr region in Table 3.1 and these are applied to the 2003 usual resident population count of adults to derive implied labour force status characteristics for 2003 as shown in Table 3.2. Three standard indicators of labour force status are presented, although these are modified here as simple proportions of the population aged 15 years and over:

Source: ABS 2001 Census of Population and Housing

Source: Author's own calculations

There are several difficulties involved in using these census labour force data. First, as they are based on the usual residence count, they exclude any persons missed by the census. Second, they appear to conflict substantially with indications of labour force status from administrative sources. For example, the census indicates that there were 63 individuals employed in CDEP in 2001, whereas ATSIC records show a total of 125 CDEP participants at the time of the census. More striking is the difference between the census count of 16 unemployed persons, compared to the fact that Centrelink recorded 325 Newstart and 129 Youth Allowance customers at the same time, although these were exempt from the work test and so may have been regarded as not in the labour force for census purposes.^[1]

Because of these discrepancies, a basic count of regional employment was conducted in Wadeye in November 2003. This revealed a total of 178 Aboriginal people in the Thamarrurr region with jobs—133 funded by CDEP, and 45 funded from other sources. Using these figures, together with Centrelink data on Newstart and Youth Allowance payments for April 2003, a revised set of labour force status levels and associated rates are provided for 2003 in Table 3.3.

Sources: Thamarrurr community census, Thamarrurr employment survey, and Centrelink, Darwin

This suggests an Aboriginal labour force of around 630 which is much greater than that indicated by the census. Of course, much here depends on semantics—are those exempt from the activity test outside of the labour force? Are CDEP participants necessarily in employment according to census definitions? Should a distinction be drawn between CDEP and other jobs given that many CDEP jobs effectively substitute for ‘real’ jobs in many areas such as education, health, and council services? Indeed, given the administratively determined nature of much Aboriginal economic activity in the region, the boundaries between officially recorded employment, unemployment, and consequent labour force participation, are sufficiently blurred to approach all these data with some caution. They are best seen as rough estimates rather than as robust indicators.

To arrive at a meaningful measure of labour force status, such issues require careful scrutiny on the ground and this provides a useful vehicle for engaging ICCP partners in a dialogue with local working groups concerning the real nature of work, its source funding, and its appropriate measurement. One aspect of this exercise would extend the analysis to consider aspects of economic activity that the census and administrative data sources tend to overlook, namely those customary activities associated with land management, ceremony, and the manufacture of arts and crafts. Just as an example, the 2001 Census recorded only 110 Indigenous visual artists in the whole of the Northern Territory, despite evidence from other sources that those participating (admittedly to varying degrees) in the industry through community art centres number in the thousands (Altman 1989; 1999: 83–5; Wright 1999: 25). In Wadeye, the census counted no such occupations, even though the Dirrmu Ngakumarl Gallery in Wadeye and the Wadeye Art and Craft Gallery in Darwin currently support the activities of 10 local artists and have dealt with as many as 126 since 1997. To underscore the local economic importance of activities that are likely to be overlooked by the census, it has been claimed that, by Australian standards, Aboriginal people on some Aboriginal lands are fully employed in the informal sector (Altman & Allen 1992: 142; Altman & Taylor 1989).

Given their labour-intensive nature and widespread occurrence, it is important to consider ways of strengthening these elements of customary economic activity as part of the broad strategy of raising employment levels. A good local example of this is provided by the Thamarrurr Rangers supported by the Northern Land Council’s Caring for Country program and by CDEP. This employs 15 local people in land and sea management activities such as mimosa and feral animal eradication, marine species survey, sacred site protection, and in ensuring continuity in local environmental knowledge (Thamarrurr Rangers 2003). Against the background of population projections, the scale of the challenge ahead clearly requires some broadening of the definition and composition of officially sanctioned work to encompass potentially labour-intensive activities associated with land management and cultural heritage, as well as the arts industry. With regard to the latter, it is significant to note that as many as 126 local artists, weavers and carvers have sold products via the Dirrmu Ngakumarl Gallery in Wadeye and the Wadeye Art and Craft Gallery in Darwin since 1997, pointing to substantial potential for economic participation. Presently, however, only 10 individuals are associated regularly with this enterprise—four women and six men—suggesting a need to review options for revitalising the arts industry in the region.

Of particular interest for development planning is the distribution of employment and related labour force status rates by age. As this information was not gathered in the basic 2003 employment survey, these data are drawn from the 2001 Census as well as from CDEP participant records for August 2001. In combining census and CDEP administrative data in this way, the assumption is that CDEP employment figures drawn from administrative data directly affect the numbers shown by the census as not in the labour force. Using these combined data, Figure 3.1 shows the labour force status of broad age groups and reveals that labour force participation (the mirror of those shown here as NILF) peaks in the 35–45 year age group, but even here it is still only 40 per cent. At younger ages, and especially among those in the transition years between school and work, participation in the workforce is very low with barely two per cent of 15–24 year olds engaged in non-CDEP work, and only 15 per cent in CDEP. The vast majority (80%) of these young adults are not in the labour force and are therefore dependent for their income on welfare payments (assuming that these are accessed). The other feature is that participation in non-CDEP work peaks in the older working age group of 45–54 years.

If the distribution of different labour force states across age groups is examined as in Figure 3.2, it is apparent that this lack of participation among young adults occurs despite the fact that, overall, CDEP participants tend to be young people with 39 per cent of participants in the 15–24 age group, and with the share of CDEP workers declining with age. The opposite is true, though, in regard to non-CDEP employment with 40 per cent of non-CDEP workers in the 35–44 age range and 25 per cent in the 45–54 age range. Almost half (43 %) of all those who are NILF are in the 15–24 age group.

Whether there is any transition from CDEP participation at younger ages to mainstream work later on with the former acting as a preparatory skilling phase is not discernable from these data. This is something that could usefully be explored by the Thamarrurr ICCP working groups. As expected, though, labour force participation is positively correlated with age up to 44 years, but recedes rapidly thereafter indicating a distinctly shortened working-life span. One prospect is that this reflects increased morbidity with advancing age, a proposition that will be tested with hospital separations data.