2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey

Summary

The 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey (the Survey) was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care (the Department). The 2023 Survey follows five previous reports conducted to examine the aged care workforce published in 2003¹, 2007², 2012³, 2016⁴ and 2020⁵. These reports provide benchmark data to inform the Australian Government and the aged care sector on the size and growth of the workforce and the attributes and skills of the workforce which are central to the delivery of quality aged care services.

For more information on the aged care workforce visit the Department of Health and Aged Care website.

Notes:
1. Counts are estimated from weighted survey data.
2. Weighted estimates may overstate the size of the workforce where staff work for multiple providers or across different service care types. 

Data collection and response rates

The 2023 Survey provides information on the size, composition and characteristics of the aged care workforce in residential aged care and in-home care settings. The Survey captures information across five key industry service care types:

• Residential Aged Care (RAC) services,
• the Home Care Packages Program (HCPP),
• the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP),
• the Multi-Purpose Services (MPS) Program and,
• the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care (NATSIFAC) Program.

Information was collected from in-scope active registered services which employed direct care staff (nurses, personal care workers or allied health staff) and had one or more eligible aged care clients during the reporting period. Services were asked to provide information relevant to the first fortnightly pay period in March 2023.

The sampling design involved 3,000 services who were invited to participate in the Survey, and of those invited 1,401 services provided submissions giving an overall response rate of 47%. Submissions were received from:

• 598 RAC services (56% of 1,065 RAC services selected);
• 360 HCPP services (46% of 778 HCPP services selected);
• 321 CHSP services (34% of 941 CHSP services selected);
• 93 MPS program services (54% of 173 MPS services selected) and
• 29 NATSIFAC program services (67% of 43 services selected).

For further information on data collection and survey methods, view the 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey Summary report or view the 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey Data Quality Statement.

Australia’s aged care workforce

In 2023, an estimated 549,000 people were employed across the five service care types. Of these employees, an estimated 414,000 (75%) were direct care workers, comprised of nurses, personal care workers, and allied health professionals. The 135,000 (25%) staff not employed in direct care roles were employed in ancillary positions, administrative, management and other roles.

Of the five service care types surveyed, the majority of direct care workers were employed in residential care services (52%) followed by home care (31%), and home support (15%) services.

Aged care workforce by job role

In 2023:

• Personal care workers (including assistants in nursing and formal traineeship roles), comprise the majority of the direct aged care workforce (78%), followed by registered nurses (12%), allied health professionals (5%) and enrolled nurses (5%).
• In residential aged care services, an estimated 72% (156,000 employees) of direct care workers were personal care workers, 17% (36,900 employees) were registered nurses and 7.8% (17,000 employees) were enrolled nurses.
• Of the remaining service care types, home care services had the highest proportion of direct care staff who were personal care workers (89%), followed by NATSIFAC Program services (80%) and home support services (79%)
• In the Multi-Purpose Services (MPS) Program, an estimated 70% of direct care staff were nurses (registered nurses, enrolled nurses or nurse practitioners), 27% were personal care workers and 5% were allied health professionals.

Aged care workforce by age and gender

The majority of the aged care workforce in 2023 were women. Across all service care types, an estimated 253,000 (85.8%) nursing and personal care staff identified as women, 41,500 (14.1%) identified as men and 120 staff (0.1%) specifying ‘other’.

Across all service care types, 43% of nursing and personal care staff in 2023 were aged 45 years and older.

In 2023:

• Across all service care types, 43% of nurse practitioners, 31% of registered nurses, 46% of enrolled nurses, 44% of personal care workers (including Assistant in nursing) and 63% of personal care workers (formal traineeship) were aged 45 years and older.
• The most common age range for registered nurses working in residential aged care services was 25–34 years (39%), whereas registered nurses in home care services were most commonly aged 35–44 years (33%).

Aged care workforce by employment status

Aged care workforce staff can be employed in permanent positions (full-time or part-time), casual or fixed term contract positions as well as indirectly employed (agency/labour hire, subcontractor, independent contractor or other employment arrangements).

In 2023:

• An estimated 242,000 (58%) of the direct care workforce were employed in permanent positions. Of these, 206,000 (85%) staff were employed in part-time positions. Of the remaining direct care workforce, 28% were employed in casual or fixed term contract positions and 13% were indirectly employed.
• Across all service care types, 63% of management and administrative staff were employed in permanent full-time positions.

Across service care types, residential aged care services had the highest proportion of direct care staff employed in permanent positions (70%) followed by MPS (64%) and NATSIFAC services (57%).

For more information see the 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey Summary Report.

References

1. Richardson S and Martin B (2004) The care of older Australians, a picture of the residential aged care workforce, National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University, accessed 30 March 2024.

2. Martin B and King D (2008) Who Cares for Older Australians? A Picture of the Residential and Community Based Aged Care Workforce, 2007, Commonwealth of Australia, accessed 30 March 2024.

3. King D, Mavromaras K, He B, Healy J, Macaitis K, Moskos M, Smith L and Wei Z (2012) The Aged Care Workforce, 2012, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, Australian Government, accessed 30 March 2024.

4. Mavromaras K, Knight G, Isherwood L, Crettenden A, Flavel J, Karme T, Moskos M, Smith L, Walton H and Wei, W (2017) The Aged Care Workforce, 2016, accessed 30 March 2024.

5. Australian Government Department of Health (2021) 2020 Aged Care Workforce Census Report, Australian Government, accessed 30 March 2024.