Employment

"Has the labour market situation of Aboriginal people in Canada been improving over the last several years? This paper uses data from the 1996 and 2001 censuses to present comprehensive, factual answers to this question. The paper looks at two main indicators of labour market activity – unemployment and participation rates – past, present and future. It reviews the labour market position of Aboriginal people in comparison to the general population in the provinces and territories, in cities with large Aboriginal populations, and on and off reserve. "

"This study examines employment segregation by gender and by Aboriginal ancestry within Canada's forest sector in 2001. Results show that while gender segregation was principally by occupation, segregation by Aboriginal ancestry was principally by industry sub-sector. White women were over represented in clerical occupations and Aboriginal men were over represented in woods based industries. Patterns of employment for Aboriginal women differed from those of both Aboriginal men and white women."

"The purpose of this study was to understand how urban-residing Aboriginal adolescent-parent dyads (n = 11) jointly constructed and acted on goals and strategies with their social supports (n = 17) to facilitate the adolescents' career development. A modified protocol following the qualitative action-project method was used. A discrete joint project was identified for each family.

"A career-life planning model for use with First Nations people is described. This model uses a communal counseling process and focuses on key components such as connectedness, balance, needs, roles, gifts, and values."

"The research examined the career progression factors of Aboriginal executives in Canada's federal public service to determine whether such factors as development opportunities, job assignments, education levels, mentoring, leadership experience, and networking increase the advancement of Aboriginal people to the executive category within the Canadian federal public service."

"Tourism and Indigenous Peoples is a unique text examining the role of indigenous societies in tourism and how they interact within the tourism nexus. Unlike other publications, this text focuses on the active role that indigenous peoples take in the industry, and uses international case studies and experiences to provide a global context to illustrate best practice and aid comparison.

"Like immigrants, aboriginal populations' economic success may be enhanced by the acquisition of skills and traits appropriate to the "majority" culture in which they reside. Using 1991 Canadian Census data, we show that Aboriginal labour market success is greater for Aboriginals whose ancestors intermarried with non-Aboriginals, for those who live off Indian reserves, and for those who live outside the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

"Investigating the earnings and income disparity faced by Aboriginal people in Canada from 1995 to 2005, we find that Aboriginal people face substantial income and earnings gaps in comparison with Canadian-born majority-group workers with similar characteristics (such as age and education). The estimated gaps are large: about 10 to 20 percent for women and 20 to 50 percent for men. However, these gaps eroded somewhat over 1995 to 2005.

"The purpose of the study was to describe ways that successful culture-based Aboriginal preventive family service agencies offer employment and education opportunities for staff. Staff in three inner-city, culture-based Aboriginal family agencies were asked about their employment and educational opportunities. Forty-four individuals were asked the question: ‘what employment and education opportunities have you had while in this job?’ A total of 81 unique responses were received.

"At one level, the story of Membertou First Nation is inspirational. But, this paper identifies some of the unique challenges and barriers faced by First Nations people pursuing opportunities as entrepreneurs. Challenges include issues of political stability; the need to respect the value placed upon community, conservation and sustainability by the culture the limited access to traditional sources of capital and other possible barriers.