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Indigenous Job Search Behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Matthew Gray  and
Boyd Hunter
Matthew Gray
Affiliation:
Australian Institute of Family Studies
Boyd Hunter
Affiliation:
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University
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Abstract

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There have been a number of labour market programs that have attempted to increase rates of employment of Indigenous Australians by influencing job search behaviour. This paper provides the first ever baseline of data on the job search behaviour of Indigenous job seekers and how it compares to the job search of non-Indigenous job seekers. Clear differences between the job search behaviours of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are apparent. Indigenous Australians rely disproportionately on friends and relatives as a source of information about jobs, although their networks tend to have less employed members, and therefore are less effective than non-Indigenous networks in securing employment. Non-Indigenous job seekers are also more likely to use more proactive search methods than are Indigenous job seekers.

Type
Current Issues
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , July 2005 , pp. 71 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2005

Footnotes

**

The origin of this paper dates back to a report presented to Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) in 2000. We would like to thank Jon Altman, Tony Eardley, Kim Grey, Eric Hubbard, John Taylor and two anonymous referees for their constructive criticism. The views are those of the authors and cannot be taken in any way to reflect those of DEWR.

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