Australia’s aged care workforce is increasingly ageing with almost 60 percent of its workers aged 45 and over and almost 30 percent aged 55 and over, according to new statistics.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the residential aged care workforce is getting older at a greater rate than any other industry group in the community sector – with 58 percent of aged care workers aged 45 and above compared to 38 percent of workers in other industries.

It also found the proportion of workers aged 55 years and over more than doubled in the past decade from 11 to 27 percent.

The Australian Social Trends September 2011 report states: “Between 2000-01 and 2010-11, there was substantial ageing of workers in the residential care services industry.

“During this same period, there was a substantial decline in the proportion of workers aged 25-34 and 35-44.”

The report also found 44 percent of workers in residential care services worked as personal carers and assistants in 2010-11, while nurses were the second largest occupation group at 17 percent of workers. The remaining workers held a wide range of support roles, the report said.

The new figures come after the Australian Nursing Federation, in its Aged Care Can’t Wait Report, called for an extra 20,000 nurses for the under-resourced sector, beginning with a $500 million Federal Government funding injection to close the wages gap.

“The nursing workforce is ageing,” the ANF report stated. “The mean average of the registered nurse in a residential aged care facility is about 50 years of age, about five years older than in hospital care.

“As the nursing workforce reaches retirement age, challenges of recruitment and retention are becoming more acute.”

The Productivity Commission’s Caring for Older Australians inquiry report, released on August 8, estimated about 980,000 aged care workers would be needed by 2050.

There was an estimated 262,000 people working in the aged care sector in late 2007, of these 175,000 provided services in residential aged care facilities and 87,000 provided aged care services in community settings.