This Topical Issue provides an assessment of the extent to which Indigenous labour force status has changed over the period 1994 to 2008. It finds that over the period 1994 to 2008 the non-CDEP employment rate of the Indigenous population increased from 31.1% to 50.5%. There were increases for both Indigenous men and women. The non-CDEP employment rate increased by 21 percentage points from 37.9% to 58.8% for Indigenous men and by 18 percentage points from 25.0% to 42.9% for Indigenous women. These increases are very substantial: to put them in context, the increase in the employment rate for the working age Australian population as a whole for men during this period increased by 5 percentage points, and for women it increased by 10 percentage points.

Keywords: Indigenous employment, employment statistics, labour force status, NATSISS