Who Cares and Does it Matter for the Labour Market? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Labour Force Status of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Carers (CAEPR Working Papers)

Indigenous Australians experience higher rates of severe or profound disability than other Australians, and the gap in rates of disability between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians increases with age. The relatively high rates of disability among the Indigenous population corresponds with heavy caring burdens. It has been well established that carers of a person with a disability have lower rates of paid employment than do noncarers. However, relatively little is known about the effect of caring on the employment rates of Indigenous carers and virtually nothing about the effect of caring on changes in labour force status. This paper uses the recently released Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset to, for the first time, describe the labour market dynamics of Indigenous and non-Indigenous carers, and the extent to which these differ from the dynamics of those who are not carers. By exploiting the longitudinal nature of the data, we can examine how labour force status changes in association with starting as a carer and exiting from caring. Employment probabilities and labour force transitions are analysed using bivariate and multivariate techniques. The analysis raises questions about how caring decisions are made within households and the extent to which the costs of caring may differ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous households. Keywords: labour force dynamics, Indigenous employme