education, Aboriginal individuals still suffer from a lower average income. As an example,
among persons with university degrees, Aboriginal individuals received around three quarters of
the average non-Aboriginal employment income (78.0 per cent). The relative income of
Aboriginal Canadians whose highest level of educational attainment is high school graduation is
slightly larger, but the gap is still significant with Aboriginal employment income representing
only 86.6 per cent that of non-Aboriginal Canadians. This in part reflects the greater
concentration of Aboriginal Canadians in rural and remote locations where there are fewer
employment opportunities.
Table A: Share of Aggregate Employment Income and Labour Market Outcomes Gap Accounted for by Differences in
Educational Attainment, 2001
|
Non- |
Aboriginal |
Gap |
Aboriginal at Non- |
Education- |
Proportion of the Gap | |
|
A |
B |
C = A - B |
_____D____ |
E = A - D |
F = ((1-(E∕C))*100 | |
|
Employment Income ($2001) |
19,727 |
12,866 |
6,861 |
16,113 |
3,614 |
47.3 |
|
Participation Rate (%) |
66.6 |
61.3 |
5.2 |
67.7 |
-1.2 |
122.0 |
|
Unemployment Rate** (%) |
6.3 |
18.0 |
-11.6 |
15.2 |
-8.9 |
23.9 |
|
Employment Rate (%) |
61.8 |
49.5 |
12.3 |
56.7 |
5.2 |
57.9 |
* The approach is to apply non-Aboriginal working age population shares to the education specific Aboriginal values for the
variable to determine what aggregate value could be obtained if the Aboriginal population had the same educational profile as
the non-Aboriginal population.
* The total for unemployment does not match the total given elsewhere in the report because the shares used here are those for
the working age population rather than those for the labour force participants population, the latter being the one used for
calculating unemployment rates. This analysis remains relevant as an indication of how much of the gap can be explained by
educational attainment.
The labour market situation of the Aboriginal population was much worse than that of the
non-Aboriginal population in 2001. Yet, between 1996 and 2001, the situation greatly improved
in both absolute and relative terms with a 4 percentage points reduction in the gap between the
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal unemployment rates. The importance of high school completion
for this trend can not be understated. In 2001, the unemployment rate gap between Aboriginal
Canadians with a high school degree and those without a high school degree was almost 10
percentage points, with the unemployment rate at 13.2 per cent and 23.0 per cent respectively.
As is shown in Table A, only about a quarter of the difference in unemployment rates
between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians in 2001 could be attributed to differences in
educational attainment. This again suggests that the main reason behind the higher level of
unemployment for Aboriginal Canadians is a lack of employment opportunities rather than lower
educational attainment, although the two are closely intertwined.
Labour force participation rates were also lower among Aboriginal individuals compared
to the general population, by 5.2 percentage points in 2001 and 7.1 points in 1996. This was
entirely explained by lower educational attainment since if Aboriginal Canadians had the same
educational profile of that of non-Aboriginal Canadians, their participation rate would be 67.7
per cent, higher than the 66.6 per cent of non-Aboriginal Canadians. This higher participation
rate reflects the younger age structure of the Aboriginal population. Aboriginal Canadians who
graduated from high school have a much higher participation rate than those who did not: 75.0