Disability, aged care and mental health workers earn some of the lowest wages in the country. Meanwhile, a third of our medical practitioners received their initial qualification overseas.
The pandemic, coupled with Australia’s ageing population, means an extra 205,900 healthcare and social assistance workers will need to be added to the workforce by 2025, according to a report by the National Skills Commission released this morning.
But with low immigration and COVID-19 risks, where is Australia going to get all those extra workers from?
The state of the workforce
The healthcare sector is dominated by women aged 20-34. There were more than 586,000 registered health practitioners in Australia in 2018, of which just 146,000 were men. Also 46% of the workforce is employed part time.
