Indigenous Business Ecosystem Is Crucial for Employment Equity, New Report Finds
A newly released study highlights the vital role played by Indigenous-owned businesses and corporations in national employment, finding that the Indigenous business ecosystem currently employs more than 135,000 people. Approximately 1 in 3 of these employees are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.
The report, “Indigenous Business and Corporation Snapshot Study 4.0” (Snapshot 4.0), was led by the Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership at the University of Melbourne. It underscores the significance of the sector in increasing workforce participation and driving economic empowerment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Snapshot 4.0 data reveals the disproportionate impact of this sector: Indigenous businesses and corporations employ 20% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the workforce, despite these firms representing less than 1% of total firms trading in Australia.
Employment Opportunities and Scale
Professor Michelle Evans, report co-author and Director of the Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership, emphasized the sheer scale of the sector’s contribution, stating: “The Indigenous corporate ecosystem isn’t some niche group of small businesses,” and noting that “It employs more Australians than the Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac combined”.
The research shows that Indigenous businesses are 12 times more likely to employ an Indigenous worker than non-Indigenous businesses across a diverse range of industries. Crucially, the research also found that Indigenous businesses are more likely to offer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people full-time and/or higher-skilled positions than non-Indigenous businesses.
The majority of these opportunities are available outside of major metropolitan centers. Professor Evans explained that almost two-thirds of the jobs available in the ecosystem are in rural and remote areas, which creates more opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to work while living on country.
Regarding the distribution of employment within the ecosystem, 54 per cent is with Indigenous businesses (companies, sole traders, and partnerships) and 46 per cent is with Indigenous Corporations (ORIC).
Key sectors driving Indigenous employment within the ecosystem include:
- Health care and social assistance: Over 11,000 jobs (23 per cent of employment).
- Administrative services: 6,535 jobs.
- Professional, scientific and technical services: 4,271 jobs.
- Public administration and safety: 4,429 jobs.
- Construction: 3,900 jobs.
A Path to Closing the Gap
The report ties the sector’s strength to national policy goals, noting that the federal government committed to increasing the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25 to 64 in employment to 62 percent under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Snapshot’s 2021 data showed this measure at 55.7 per cent.
Professor Evans pointed out that to achieve the 6.3 percentage points needed to close the gap on employment participation, policymakers must “understand what the economy looks like for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders looking for work and encourage job creation in areas that meet the needs of the community”.
Procurement Policy Impact
Snapshot 4.0 also quantified the effect of the national Indigenous Procurement Program (IPP) on the sector. The study found that since the Program’s implementation, the average annual number of Commonwealth contracts won by Indigenous businesses and corporations increased significantly, rising from 3,589 a year (between 2007/8 and 2014/5) to 8,197 a year (2015/16 to 2018/19), accompanied by a 21% increase in annual spend over the same period. An estimated 82% of recipients received their first Commonwealth contract under the IPP.
However, report lead author Associate Professor Cain Polidano noted that the Indigenous business and corporation ecosystem is “by no means reliant on the IPP or government contracts,” as the value of contracts won through the IPP represents only 4% of the total revenue generated by the sector.
Polidano added a note of caution regarding the policy’s geographic equity, observing that the contracts are not being evenly divided across the sector, meaning the potential employment increases from the IPP are yet to be fully realized. “Our data shows we can’t rely on the IPP alone to close the employment gap,” he said, especially since 60% of working-age Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders live in rural and remote areas where employment rates are lower.
Data Infrastructure Advances
The broader objective of the Indigenous Economic Power Project (IEPP) is to fix the historical lack of an identifier for Indigenous ownership and quantify the economic, employment, and social contribution of these businesses.
The project leveraged the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE)—an expansive collection of anonymized business data compiled by the Commonwealth—and, for Snapshot 3.0, incorporated the Person Level Integrated Data Asset, which expanded the sample size to 13,693 businesses, providing “the most comprehensive view to date”. The IEPP works in collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and six Indigenous business and corporation registries, including the Office for the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) registry and the Waalitj Foundation Aboriginal business list.
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