Australian Support Worker Workforce Reports 2027

Analysis of 1,971 active Support Network worker records collected between July and early October 2026 reveals a geographically diverse and notably young group of workers entering or participating in the care economy.

Among 1,272 records containing a plausible adult age between 18 and 75, the median age was approximately 28 years. Jobs and Skills Australia reports a median age of 41 for the broader Aged and Disabled Carers occupation.

Approximately 71% of workers with usable age data were under 35. The largest age group was 25-34.

Geographic distribution

Of 1,882 records reliably assigned to a state or territory, NSW represented approximately one-third.

Local concentrations include Liverpool, Blacktown, Auburn, Merrylands, Hurstville and Wollongong in NSW; and Tarneit, Rockbank, Mickleham, Point Cook, Truganina, Wollert, Melton South and Craigieburn in Victoria.

Care is fundamentally local. A participant needs a suitable worker who can reach them at the time and location required.

Conclusion

The 2027 challenge is: How do we attract, retain and efficiently connect the right workers with the right clients in the right locations?

Support worker remuneration can be confusing because employee earnings, award wages, contractor rates and the amount ultimately charged for a support service are different measures.

Jobs and Skills Australia reports median full-time weekly earnings of approximately $1,761 and median hourly earnings of approximately $46 per hour for Aged and Disabled Carers. These are occupational earnings statistics, not an NDIS participant charge.

Employees may fall under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award depending on classification and circumstances. Fair Work has announced changes affecting covered home-care disability employees from December 2026, including increases of up to 15% to applicable minimum award rates.

NDIS prices are not worker wages

NDIS maximum prices for many supports are not the worker's wage and may incorporate other costs associated with delivering support.

Why rates vary

Rates can vary with time and day, public holidays, experience, qualifications, complexity, location, remote loadings, employment versus contracting arrangements and travel.

Data limitation

Support Network's current CSV does not contain hourly-rate or earnings fields. This report therefore does not manufacture suburb-level rate statistics. Future versions can add genuine rate distributions once anonymised agreed-rate or invoicing data is available.

Jobs and Skills Australia reports approximately 376,300 Aged and Disabled Carers currently employed, with annual employment growth of approximately 27,100.

Three structural forces are converging: Australia's population is ageing; the number of Australians identified as living with disability has increased; and public policy increasingly supports care and support within homes and communities.

A younger workforce may be emerging

Among 1,272 Support Network workers with plausible adult age information, the median age is approximately 28, compared with approximately 41 for the broader Aged and Disabled Carer workforce.

This does not establish that Australia's entire workforce is becoming younger, but it suggests digital recruitment and marketplace channels may be attracting a younger cohort.

Gender

Nationally, women represent approximately 73% of Aged and Disabled Carers. Within 861 Support Network records where gender was supplied, approximately 60% were female and 40% male. Because gender was missing from more than half of the dataset, this result should be treated cautiously.

The workforce is local

Australia's care workforce is better understood as thousands of small local labour markets rather than one national market. The future opportunity is to build a better connected workforce through improved discovery, matching, scheduling and geographic utilisation.