It breaks a 15 year trend of the figures improving, and the government is pointing the finger of blame squarely at Labor.
The Close The Gap targets were set five years ago. The goal set at the time was to halve unemployment rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by 2018.
But new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today show a reversal in 15 years of progress.
In 2008, 75 per cent of non-Indigenous people were employed, that's gone up by 0.6 per cent.
But the figures for Indigenous Australians were better in 2008 than they are today, with the rift widening as the figure for those employed drops to 45.9 percent.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Indigenous Affairs, Alan Tudge, says the former Labor government is to blame.
But the Shadow Minister Shane Neumann says they invested more money than ever before, and even though the percentage widened, the number of people in employment grew.
"It was unprecedented the level of investment the Labor government put in," Mr Neumann said. "In fact, we saw the number of people employed grew in rural and regional areas."
The Abbott Government is carrying out a review into employment training programs to be completed in April.
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