Helping healthcare hirers navigate a challenging employment market

Off the back of a strong post-pandemic recovery and record low levels of unemployment in Australia, competition among Healthcare & Medical hirers to attract and retain workers remains strong.

Lifestyle factors are driving employment decisions like never before as all kinds of healthcare workers — from aged care workers to GPs ­— gravitate toward part-time jobs and flexible working arrangements.

And while economic growth is expected to slow in 2023, the healthcare industry continues to face labour shortages in areas of growing demand such as Aged Care Nursing and Mental Health Nursing.

According to SEEK’s 2023 Healthcare Pulse Report, healthcare recruiters, managers and decision makers who understand what candidates want and, equally, what they can bring to a role are ideally positioned for success in the current market.

A healthy market for candidates

The RBA forecasts that the unemployment rate will rise above 4% by June 2024, but hirer activity is higher than before the pandemic and SEEK’s report shows it remains a healthy job market for candidates.

“The market was very hot post-COVID and it was unlikely to stay there forever, but external factors are accelerating a return closer to historically more typical patterns of unemployment,” says SEEK Analytics Manager Martin Hartley.

“There’s a lot of demand for workers. As economic conditions shift it’s possible that the situation will change slightly, but it’s likely to remain a healthy market.”

Towards stability and better balance

Healthcare & Medical is one of the least volatile industries in Australia, so if economic conditions worsen, the impact on jobs in the industry is predicted to be less than the overall employment market.

“Healthcare stayed relatively resilient throughout 2022, with a similar pattern playing out so far this year. The overall expectation from the marketplace is that it will remain stable in the year ahead,” explains SEEK Healthcare Industry Leader, James Duncan.

All Healthcare & Medical role groups have enjoyed significant growth over the past decade, but it is Aged & Disability Support that has experienced the largest increase, driven by our ageing population. The trend of relocating from metro to regional areas that took hold during the pandemic is also notable and showing no signs of abating, with the share of regional job ads as a percentage of all Healthcare & Medical job ads on SEEK steadily increasing over the past four years.

Competition among hirers to attract and retain healthcare staff remains strong and work-life balance is a key issue, Duncan says.

“This is a huge consideration across healthcare, in particular for nursing and allied health professionals. Allowing flexibility in areas like hours worked and start and finish times can help to prevent burnout, which is common as we move out of the pandemic.”

Flexible work a key driver for GPs

For hirers of GPs, flexible working arrangements — in particular, provision of part-time roles — are an especially important attraction and retention tool because hiring patterns among this professional group differ to that of many other Healthcare & Medical roles, as well as the broader employment market.

Full-Time and Part-Time GP Roles percentage 

Notes: Full-time and Part-time ads as proportion of all ads. Source: SEEK.

Duncan says some GPs want to work part-time, while others prefer to combine a part-time GP role in a clinic with a medical officer job in a hospital, especially in regional areas. “The decline in full-time roles comes from GPs working across several roles in some cases. Work-life balance is a significant factor overall.”

Hartley says application trends for GP roles are also worth noting.

“From the start of 2022 to now, for GP ads there have been 63% more views per applicant than the other healthcare subclassifications, and 96% more views per application,” he says. “This suggests that applicants are viewing a lot of ads but not applying.”

To encourage more GPs to apply for jobs, Duncan says hirers need to make the process simple.

“While complicated application processes help filter occupations with large application numbers, it acts as a deterrent for occupations with low application numbers like GPs.”

Leveraging transferable skills

Aged & Disability Support and Nursing are significant growth areas, and shortages provide strong impetus to attract and retain talent from other industries.

Duncan says organisations that look to attract candidates from outside Healthcare & Medical can benefit from diverse experience and perspectives. “It’s about getting proactive by promoting a career in aged care, for example, and the benefits it can provide, including job security, a purposeful career, flexibility and potential for career development into nursing and allied health.”

SEEK’s report indicates a sizable number of candidates transition into aged care from varied but related role groups, including Cleaning, Customer Service, Retail Sales Assistants, Hospitality, and Admin and Reception. Skills in personal care, hygiene, cleaning, accountability, documentation and teamwork are among the most common transferrable these candidates bring to the industry.

Typical skills for incoming candidates to aged care

For candidates coming from other role groups, frequently mentioned skills are denoted with darker colours and less frequently mentioned skills are denoted with lighter colours.

Note: Sampled from candidates starting a job as an Aged Care Worker between 2000 and 2022. Source: SEEK

Duncan says the high proportion of care workers who then transition into nursing demonstrates a clear career pathway that may help to alleviate candidate shortages in the future.

“The aged care industry can really help Australia with long-term nursing supply,” he says. “Aged care can attract people from retail, hospitality or admin jobs and offer them a pathway to become an assistant in nursing, then an enrolled nurse and a registered nurse.”

For an in-depth look at the healthcare labour market plus strategic insights to aid workforce planning, download SEEK’s 2023 Healthcare Pulse Report.