The 2002 NATSISS provides a valuable new source of data on labour market issues for Indigenous Australians. It provides some data on labour market issues that has not previously been available. It also repeats much of the labour market content of the 1994 NATSIS and may allow the estimates made using the 1994 NATSIS to be updated, and the robustness of findings from the earlier survey tested.

This is a very valuable data source, although there is no direct information on critical variables such as labour market experience and tenure in the current job. These are important variables for understanding many labour market relationships, and their absence will likely restrict the value of some types of analysis.

While the 2002 NATSISS survey will certainly advance our understanding of labour market outcomes, the cross-sectional nature of the survey will make the identification of some causal relationships quite difficult and, in some cases, impossible. A longitudinal labour market study for the Indigenous population needs to be considered seriously.