Employment Outlook
Support Worker
Average wage for
Employment Levels
There are currently around 55,900 people who are employed as Support Workers in Australia. The Department of Employment predicts that by 2018, there will be roughly 66,700 people working within the profession.
Employment by State
The largest proportion of Support Workers are in New South Wales, with 33.2%. However the lowest amount of Support Workers are located in the ACT, with only 1.7%.
Gender Split
This is a very female dominated industry with 70.6% of Support Workers being women and only 29.5% male.
Age Brackets
The most popular age for people working as a Support Worker is 34-44 years old, with 24.3%. However, a small percentage (0.5%) of people get into this career path younger, from 15-19 years old. Around 1.1% of people are still working in this job at 65+.
Hours Worked
Support Workers work an average of 38.7 hours a week which is 2.4 hours less than the average for all occupations.
Education Level
The majority of Support Workers have a Certificate III/IV qualification (26.6%) or reached Bachelor level (22.3%). 81% have a Certificate III or higher, whilst 19% have a qualification which is Year 12 or lower.
Support Worker Duties & Tasks
- Analyse the client's needs
- Put a plan in place to make sure you care for the client in the right way
- Make sure the patient has enough emotional support from friends and family
- Arrange activities where the patient can interact with others such as at community centres or through activities
- Support the families, helping them understand how they can help provide assistance
Professional Associations & Groups
*The information provided on this page is from the Department of Employment’s Job Outlook website. All salary ranges are from Payscale. Where jobs are not exact matches, job areas have been used. This information is to be used as a guide only.
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