A report commissioned by the Human Services Skills Corporation showed that the service sector was a massive job generator, but there were significant problems emerging.

HSSC said the key question arising from the report was how could Australia deal with the massive expansion of the health care sector.

“How can the care sector recruit, train, accredit and support a workforce that is expanding at a rate of 24,000 extra workers a year?”

“The net increase in the aged or disabled care worker is three times the increase in the next biggest growth job.”

The report said that unlike the retail workers, aged and health care workers also needed training and accreditation.

And while politicians and industry groups have called more highly skilled workers the report found there needed to be a realignment orfworkforce skills and training.

Of the top five in demand jobs, only one is white collar and that’s for a policy and planning manager, the second most in-demand job behind aged or disabled care worker.

After that it was delivery drivers, child care workers, storepersons, clerks, medical receptionist, software engineer, marketing specialist and secondary school teacher.

Separate data from the ABS this week showed healthcare now employed about 2 million out of the 13 million Australians in the workforce. It is by far the biggest job provider in Queensland.

Other big employers were education and training (1.3 million), retail (1.3 million), construction (1.2 million), professional and scientific (1.2 million) and accommodation and food (903,000).

The report was written by demographers Bernard Salt and Simon Kuestenmacher.

The biggest single occupation has been sales assistant with 514,000 roles and aged care workers were 228,000 but shop assistants were contracting while aged workers were growing.

“The scene is set for further growth in demand for care workers, for more care training facilities and fore greater care management services in more or less every city, suburb and town on the Australian continent,” the report found.

The report said the growth wasn’t tied to the pandemic, but was “everywhere” throughout the care sector. Occupational therapy roles increased by 57 per cent in the five years.

“The ageing of the Australian community prompts a realignment of the Australian workforce and skills training industry.”

Many of the jobs in the top 10 in demand roles in 2016 didn’t make the 2021 list from the Census. Among those that have fallen out of favour were chefs, domestic cleaner, construction project manager, barista and nurse.

The Queensland town of Hervey Bay ranked number one in the list of Australian locations with the biggest proportion of the workforce in healthcare with about 24 per cent. Further down the list were Bundaberg, Toowoomba, Maryborough, Cairns, Rockhampton, Townsville and the Sunshine Coast.

The report said that there were 1.1 million Australians aged over 80 and about 40 per cent need care.

That number was expected to reach 2 million by 2035.