Youth unemployment amidst aged care workers shortages in Australia. Why care about the millennials?

• Published date: 14 March 2018
• Date: 14 March 2018
• Pages: 182-198
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2017-0105
• Author: Jacinta Ellen Sutcliffe,Subas P. Dhakal

Youth unemployment amidst

aged care workers shortages

in Australia

Why care about the millennials?

Jacinta Ellen Sutcliffe

School of Management, Curtin Business School, Perth, Australia, and

Subas P. Dhakal

School of Management, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

Abstract

Purpose –The broader challenges of youth employment and ageing population have collectively received

global attention in the Sustainable Development Goals. Under the assumption that there are fertile

opportunities to judiciously address the youth unemployment and labour shortages within the aged care

sector, the purpose of this paper is to draw on the experiences of millennial aged care workers (MACWs)

in Western Australia (WA).

Design/methodology/approach –The paper makes use of an exploratory research approach which

involved three aged care facilities in WA. A total of 19 semi-structured interviews with MACWs (n¼14),

human resources managers of aged care facilities (n¼3), government official (n¼1), and a union

representative (n¼1) were carried out.

Findings –The results revealed that millennials prefer positive working relationships with managers,

co-workers and residents, flexible work schedules and value the altruistic nature of the profession. In addition,

unsupportive work environment and workplace pressure to satisfy the needs of elderly residents reduced

millennials’desire to remain in the industry.

Originality/value –These findings have the potential to inform human resources managers, aged care

service providers and policy makers to formulate strategies to retain the millennials, especially the

unemployed, considered vital to the vitality of the Australian aged care industry.

Keywords Millennials, Western Australia, Sustainable Development Goals, Aged care workers,

Labour shortages, Youth unemployment

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

The broader challenges of youth unemployment and ageing population have collectively

received global attention since 2015. The much-awaited United Nations Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs) specifically focussed on ensuring health and well-being as well

as decent work for all ages (United Nations (UN), 2015). The growth of an ageing population

and extended life expectancies has initiated significant changes on aged care systems in

developed countries like Australia. The Australian aged care sector has been under pressure

to provide adequate support and assistance to the existing ageing population (Hugo, 2007).

A greater proportion of the ageing population will require assistance with everyday tasks

and evidence signals Generation X and Y are less obligated to provide informal care to the

Baby Boomers (National Seniors Australia, 2010). Changing population trends and social

preferences towards caring for the elderly indicates that by 2050, three million additional

Australians will seek services provided by the aged care industry (Australian Health

Directory, 2016). The “demographic time bomb”as coined by Montague et al. (2015, p. 295)

will put additional stress on the already under resourced and underfunded industry

to deliver appropriate services to current and future older Australians (Hugo, 2007).

On the one hand, aged care workforce would need to double by 2050 (Tyrrell, 2016) to cope

with the increasing demand. On the other hand, despite youth unemployment rate of

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 37 No. 2, 2018

pp. 182-198

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-05-2017-0105

Received 7 May 2017

Revised 25 October 2017

Accepted 19 November 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

182

EDI

37,2

12.2 per cent being twice as much the overall unemployment rate of 5.8 per cent

(Brotherhood of St Laurence, 2016), the prevailing challenges within the aged care sector

have exacerbated attempts to expand the workforce. The high turnover rate of around

25 per cent, an ageing workforce, increasing reliance on migrants, and inability to retain

young workers continue to plague the sector (Cooke and Bartram, 2015; Department of

Social Services, 2016). This presents both a challenge and opportunity for the sector to

utilise the young labour sources, e.g. “millennials”–those individuals born after the 1980s.

Millennials are expected to be half of the global workforce (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2011)

and will account for 42 per cent of the Australian workforce by 2020 (McCrindle Research,

2008). It has been argued that the inclusion of millennials not only has the potential to

mitigate the existing labour shortages in the aged care industry (Fine and Mitchell, 2007)

but also reduce the youth unemployment rate in Australia to a certain extent. Mainly

because, the availability of aged care-related jobs is expected to increase significantly

(Anglicare Australia, 2017, p. 14). Although the industry’s ability to successfully respond to

the growing demand for aged care services partially depends on the industry capitalising on

the pool of motivated millennials (see Kronos, 2016). However, the factors that specifically

help retain millennials in the aged care sector remain under-explored. Under the assumption

that fertile opportunities exist to judiciously address the paradox of high youth

unemployment in the country and labour shortages within the aged care sector, this paper

draws on the experiences of millennial aged care workers (MACWs) in Western Australia

(WA). The paper begins with a quick overview of youth unemployment and aged care

workforce in Australia. The existing and emerging themes in the literature associated with

aged care workforce are reviewed next. Then, the paper describes data collection and

findings as well as discusses the implications before presenting concluding comments.

2. Youth unemployment and aged care workforce in Australia

The Australian workforce is currently subjected to varying age demographics and the trend

indicates that millennials are set to become majority of the country’s workforce (Spinks and

Moore, 2007; McCrindle Research, 2008). However, the Australian labour market is

confronted with a duality paradox: labour shortages in sectors like the aged care industry

and the persistent youth unemployment. The issue of youth unemployment has become one

of the growing social policy challenges across Australia. For example, helping young people

to overcome barriers to participate in the workforce is the core of the federal government’s

youth employment strategy (Department of Social Services, 2016). Mainly because, the long-

term data suggest that youth unemployment has remained double the rate of overall

unemployment (Figure 1) in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017; Organisation

for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2017). The current youth are an under-utilised

labour source, which signals to the aged care industry to adapt to the changing workforce

and find innovative ways to capitalise on the significant number of millennials

progressively entering the workforce (Andrews, 2013; Connell et al., 2015).

The need to rectify some of the work-related challenges within the aged care industry as

well as improve capacity to retain a younger workforce in a highly competitive marketplace

is evident (Belardi and O’Keefe, 2015). The mature workforce remains a dominant source of

labour in the aged care industry (Austen et al., 2013), and recent data show that only a small

proportion of aged care positions is undertaken by younger workers. For instance,

the Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research’s (2014) report indicated that less

than one-fifth (19 per cent) of aged care workers are between 16 and 34 years old.

The majority of the industry’s workforce is aged over 45, the highest median age in

comparison to other industries, which will result in approximately 8,000 retirements and

vacancies over the next 15 years (McCrindle Research, 2014). This trend indicates that

the industry is currently experiencing significant problems retaining younger workers

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Aged care

workers

shortages in

Australia