Jobs and Skills Summit - Opportunities and Challenges for Health and Human Services

Day One - Jobs and Skills Summit

Business, union, and community leaders met yesterday in Canberra at the Jobs and Skills Summit. There has been significant investment and attention given to these two days. As Neil Pharaoh recently pointed out, the two days itself is the easy part, with largely the work being done after. So, let’s look at what we know and how we can support the momentum across the sector, and perhaps were we could value add.

The Summit has been a great opportunity to discuss the opportunities for the Australian economy, including looking back at the past two years, where we are now and what the future holds. This includes better knowing where do points of collaboration begin between the states (who have largely been running their own show during COVID) and the new federal Government, which sectors are growing in this new world, who requires support or investment, and where do we draw a line in the sand.

The agenda included a great range of areas, including:

—??full employment and growing productivity,

—??equal opportunities for women,

—??mega-trends driving our current and future skills needs,

—??tackling climate change,

—??skills and training,

—??migration and workforce participation.

Among all of this, there was an intersectional lens to it all, including knowing the experiences of marginalisation, and how it can be amplified by multiple and overlapping barriers and systemic inequalities.

Health and Human Services - Challenges and Opportunities

Yesterday we heard that in the next five years, the greatest demand for workers will be in health and human services, social care, professional and technical jobs, education, hospitality, and construction.

Industries that are likely to being replaced by automation include construction, retail, and transport - estimating to be approximately 14 per cent of the total workforce. But most of the task ahead will be in supporting workers in adapting to changing skill requirements, and investing in the growth areas – health and human services, social care, professional and technical jobs, education etc.

We also heard that the pandemic had a disproportionately negative impact on women in the workforce. Some experts have pointed out that the pandemic may have slowed progress towards gender equality in the workforce.

Importantly, women make up a large proportion of the workforce in health and human services. The female/male ratio of the overall number of health professionals was 2.9, with a total of 476,500 women and 166,000 men registered and employed in Australia’s health workforce (AIHW, 2020). There were more than 642,000 health practitioners working in their registered professions in Australia in 2020, which includes 105,300 medical practitioners, 350,000 nurses and midwives, 21,500 dental practitioners, and 166,000 allied health professionals (AIHW, 2020).

In human services or social care roles, this is greater, the majority (85%) of Australia's welfare workforce in 2020 was female – a proportion relatively unchanged since 2010 (AIHW, 2020). This may change in the future as the industry grows and more men take up work in the sector due to growth.

Importantly in the Health and Human Services, we know that the sector is growing significantly, but it also the sector where its workforce are depleted and fatigued from COVID.

In Aged Care, the Summit heard 70 per cent of the aged care workforce have quit or are thinking about quitting. Further to this, 70 per cent of aged providers are financially struggling. The Summit also heard how this sector is facing a labour shortage and are still using paper-based systems for reporting and rostering.

We heard at the Summit that labour shortages across Health and Human Services is a challenge, with some parts of the sector reporting that 30 per cent of its workforce left in 2021. Another 40 per cent have indicated they would leave in the next three years.

In light of this, its critically important that government and industry are making sure care jobs are good jobs – properly paid care work is going to be critical to providing the quality and quantity of services that our communities will need and that the workforce is fulfilled.

Government cannot and should not do this alone. We need to partner and collaborate where we can, and recognise the importance of providing greater opportunities and investment in the female workforce, boosting innovation, supporting better policy design, and have investment in enablers such as technology and digital transformation.?

This also needs to be developed and co-designed with communities to address economic and structural barriers to participate, including vulnerable groups, including the voices of young people and children, people with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and older Australians.