Summary

In 2006, 842,615 people were employed in health and community services occupations. Of these, 548,384 (65.1%) were health workers and 294,231 (34.9%) were community services workers. Between 1996 and 2001, the health workforce increased by 11.6% and between 2001 and 2006 by 22.8%. Over the same periods, the community services workforce increased by 22.8% and 35.6% respectively.

As the size of the health and community services workforce increased between censuses, it also increased as a proportion of the total Australian workforce. In 2006, employment in the health and community services occupations accounted for 9.3% of all persons employed (6.0% were in health occupations and 3.3% were in community services occupations). In 2001, the figure was 7.2% of all employed (4.9% in health and 2.4% in community services) and in 1996, 7.8% of all employed (5.1% and 2.7% respectively).

People in the health and community services workforce worked 33 hours per week on average in 2006, compared with 37 hours for people employed in all occupations. The average week for health workers was 35 hours, whereas the average for community services was 31 hours.

Geographical distribution

In 2006, the number of health and community services workers was 4,071 per 100,000 population - comprising 2,649 health workers, and 1,422 community services workers. Across the states and territories, the highest number of health and community services workers per 100,000 population was in South Australia (4,677), followed by Tasmania (4,350). The lowest number of workers was in New South Wales, followed by Queensland (3,863 and 3,964 per 100,000 population respectively).

The number of health and community services workers per 100,000 population increased 19.1% between 2001 and 2006 (from 3,419 to 4,071). All states and territories had increases in the size of both their health and community services workforces between 2001 and 2006. The largest increase occurred in South Australia where the number per 100,000 rose by 895 workers (from 3,782 to 4,677) and the lowest increase was in the Northern Territory where the number per 100,000 rose by 470 workers (from 3,662 to 4,132).

Across the Remoteness Areas (RAs) the highest number of health and community services workers per 100,000 population was in Major cities (4,155), followed by Inner regional Australia (4,076) and Outer regional Australia (3,609). The lowest numbers of workers were in Very remote Australia, followed by Remote Australia (3,076 and 3,234 per 100,000 population respectively).

Between 2001 and 2006, growth in the health workforce differed from that of the community services workforce. The health workforce grew in all areas except Very remote Australia where the rate decreased by 346 workers per 100,000 (from 1,725 to 1,379). Conversely, in the community services occupations, Very remote Australia experienced a rise in the rate of workers (from 1,252 to 1,696 per 100,000 population) which was the highest across the RAs.

Demographic characteristics

The health and community services workforce became older between 2001 and 2006. This was evident in the growth in proportion of workers aged 55 to 64 years (up by 4.0 percentage points), coupled with a small decrease in the proportion aged 35 to 44 years (down by 1.8 percentage points).

Historically, the health and community services workforces have been predominantly female. In 2006, 75.7% of people employed in health occupations were female and 87.1% of people employed in community services occupations were female.

There were 455,028 people who identified as Indigenous in the 2006 census and 15,005 of these people were employed in health and community services occupations. Of these 15,005 workers, 5,538 were employed in the Indigenous health workforce in 2006, comprising 1.0% of health occupation workers - well below the 2.5% Indigenous representation in the population. There were 9,467 Indigenous people employed in the Indigenous community services workforce in 2006, comprising 3.2% of community services occupation workers - above the 2.5% Indigenous representation in the population. Between 2001 and 2006, the number of Indigenous workers in health and community services occupations rose by 62.6% - health workers by 44.9% and community services workers by 72.7%.

Country of birth

In 2006, approximately one-third of health workers (31.9%) and one-quarter of community services workers (24.8%) reported being born outside Australia compared with 26.7% of other workers. Among health occupations, medical practitioners had the largest proportion born outside Australia (48.1%), followed by pharmacists (36.8%) and complementary therapists (33.5%). People employed in community services occupations were less likely to be born overseas than people in health occupations. Overall, the proportion of community services workers who were born overseas ranged from 20.0% for child care centre managers to 30.1% for aged and/or disabled care workers.

Qualifications

There were over 1 million people (1,069,066) in 2006 who reported holding a non-school qualification in a field related to health and community services and, of these people, just 2.0% were looking for work. Compared with this overall proportion, people with qualifications in optical science and radiography were less likely to be unemployed, with just 1.0% and 0.7% of them looking for work.