2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey: summary report

This paper provides the key findings from the 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, which provides information on the size, composition and characteristics of the aged care workforce in residential aged care and in-home care settings. The 2023 survey captures information across five service care types: residential aged care; the Home Care Packages Program; the Commonwealth Home Support Programme; the Multi-Purpose Services Program; and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program.

Key findings include: (1) in 2023, the total estimated number of staff employed across the five service care types was 549,000, and, of these, 483,000 (88 per cent) staff were directly employed; (2) the total estimated number of direct care staff employed across the five service care types was 414,000, 75 per cent of the workforce overall, and, of these, 242,000 (58 per cent) were directly employed in permanent positions with 206,000 of these being part-time; (3) across the five service care types, 43 per cent of directly employed nursing and personal care staff were aged 45 years and older, and the majority (86 per cent) of directly employed nursing and personal care staff were women; (4) at March 2023, there were an estimated 43,000 vacancies in directly employed nursing, personal care and clinical care manager positions across all service care types; and (5) an estimated 79,000 volunteers provided approximately 314,000 hours of support to aged care services across Australia during the two-week reporting period.

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