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The Challenge of the Care Workforce: Recent Trends and Emerging problems
Author(s) -
Meagher Gabrielle
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.2007.tb00046.x
Subject(s) - workforce , underemployment , disadvantage , project commissioning , publishing , workforce planning , economic growth , business , service (business) , public relations , service delivery framework , political science , economics , marketing , unemployment , law
This paper examines the paid care workforce in community services in Australia. Focusing on people employed in direct service delivery roles, I use unpublished data from the Censuses of 1996 and 2001 to document some important characteristics of the care workforce in community services, in which a large minority of care workers are employed in this country. International research has established that paid care workers suffer considerable labour market disadvantage. The paper presents evidence of deinstitutionalisation, deprofessionalisation, functional underemployment, and relatively poor pay for care workers in community service industries, which suggests that problems identified in other English‐speaking countries are also evident in Australia. I conclude by discussing the policy implications of these trends, and by raising some questions for workforce planning.