Unions NSW has released a report in partnership with David Peetz at Griffith University on the labour shortage of essential workers in Australia.

Based on an analysis of online job advertisements, essential worker vacancies were 98% higher in 2022 compared to 2018.

The data used in the report references ABS data over the last 10 years, between 2012 and 2022.

Nurses and midwives have been speaking about the labour shortage crisis through first-hand experience for years so it’s no surprise to see this significant increase in vacancies on paper.

The report presents key findings of interest to nurses and midwives:

Based off the quantity of online jobs advertised over time, Registered Nurses’ online vacancies have risen 205% over the last 10 years, and aged and disabled carers internet vacancies increased 360%, the highest of any other industry sample.

At the same time, in just one year, between 2021 and 2022, across the entire sample of essential workers, filled vacancies dropped 15%.

Read more here.