fudging the unemployment figures

The Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) says the Northern Territory's Indigenous unemployment rate is the worst in the country and would be even worse if work-for-the-dole schemes were taken out of the equation.

CAEPR Professor Jon Altman says Australian Bureau of Statistic (ABS) figures for the three years to 2004 show Australia's Indigenous unemployment rate is 16.8 per cent.

In the Territory, it is 19.4 per cent.

Professor Altman says without work-for-the-dole schemes, such as CDEP, the figure would blow out even further.

"You could see unemployment rates increasing to 60, 70, 80 per cent, so on one hand the CDEP scheme doesn't represent real employment - it's only part-time employment, people working for the dole," he said.

"But on the other hand the scheme is enormously important in remote areas where there aren't actually other opportunities."

Dave R.