Aged care workforce reporting: vacancy and turnover explained

Aged care providers report staff vacancy and turnover information through a national survey, not as a monthly return of their own. The main collection is the Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey, and its published results sit on GEN Aged Care Data. Whether a round applies to your service is set for that round.

In short

• Aged care workforce reporting happens mainly through the Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey, a national collection of provider reported workforce information.
• Published results, including workforce dashboards and reports, sit on GEN Aged Care Data and are free to read.
• What each round requires, and by when, is set for that round. Check the official page, not last year's advice.
• Turnover and vacancy rates are not defined the same way by every home. Write your own definition down.
• Star Ratings for residential aged care has four sub-categories, one of which is Staffing. Vacancy and turnover are not shown as their own star.

What aged care providers report about their workforce

Aged care providers report staff vacancy and turnover information through the Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey, the national collection published on GEN Aged Care Data, rather than through a separate vacancy return lodged each month. It is a survey of providers, not of individual workers, and it covers residential aged care, home care, home support and flexible care programs.

As at September 2026, the most recent provider survey published on GEN is the 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey. GEN publishes it as a set: a full report, a summary report, supplementary materials and a dashboard. There is also an Aged Care Worker Survey 2024 report, which asks workers themselves rather than providers, so read the two as different sources with different people answering.

People sometimes call this a workforce census in aged care. It is a survey rather than a census, and treating it as a complete count of every worker in the country is the most common way to misread it.

Two practical points for a provider. First, the survey is periodic, not continuous, so published figures always describe a point in the past. Second, the reporting instructions for each round tell you which services are in scope and what period the questions cover. Those instructions are the only safe place to answer "do we have to complete this one", because it changes between rounds and it can differ by service type.

Where to find aged care workforce vacancy and turnover data

GEN Aged Care Data is the place to start for published aged care workforce data, at the aged care workforce topic page. The survey report and the dashboard are the two most useful items there for anyone looking for national vacancy and turnover figures.

If you want to read the material properly, go in this order:

1. The summary report, for the shape of the findings.
2. The dashboard, to filter by service type and by state or territory, which is where most providers find something close to their own setting.
3. The supplementary materials, for the definitions and the tables behind the charts.

Step three is the one people skip and the one that matters most. Care workforce data only means something once you know what was counted, who was asked and over what period.

Star Ratings data is separate and comes from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, which publishes a service level Star Ratings quarterly data extract. That extract is about ratings, not about vacancies.

What counts as staff turnover in aged care

Staff turnover is the share of your workforce who leave over a set period, but there is no single definition of staff turnover that every aged care home uses, so the definition has to be stated beside the number. Two homes with the same roster can publish very different turnover rates simply by counting differently.

The decisions that change the answer:

• Do you count all separations, or only permanent staff leaving?
• Do you include casuals who simply stopped picking up shifts?
• Do you include internal moves between your own services?
• Do you count heads, or full time equivalent?
• Is the denominator headcount at the start, at the end, or the average across the period?

A worked example, using example figures only. A home with an average of 80 staff over twelve months, and 24 separations in that year, has a staff turnover rate of 30 per cent for the year. Change the rule so that only permanent staff count, and if 9 of those 24 were casuals, the same year reads as 18.75 per cent. Nothing about the home changed. Only the definition did.

The same caution applies when you read published national figures. Use the definitions in the supplementary materials, and do not place your own number beside a national one until both are counted the same way.

How a staff vacancy rate is measured in aged care

A vacancy rate is the share of your funded or budgeted positions that are unfilled at a point in time, expressed as a percentage of those positions. The measure only works if "budgeted positions" is a real, agreed number rather than a wish list.

Three things to settle before the number is worth reporting to a board:

• The position list. Approved and funded positions, by role, agreed with finance. Positions you would like to add are not vacancies.
• The point in time. A vacancy rate is a snapshot. Pick the same day each month, for example the last day, and hold to it.
• The treatment of agency and overtime cover. A shift covered by agency staff is still a vacancy in the position list. If you net it off, say so, because a home that leans on agency cover can otherwise look fully staffed.

Vacancy and turnover are worth reading together. A low vacancy rate with high turnover usually means you are refilling quickly and losing people quickly, which costs more in orientation and supervision than the vacancy figure alone suggests.

Why staff turnover matters for quality and safety

Staff turnover matters because continuity of care is part of care quality, and because the cost of turnover lands in areas boards watch closely, such as agency spend, overtime and training. A resident with advanced dementia, for example, is supported better by staff who know their routine and their signs of distress.

Turnover also shows up indirectly in other measures you already report. Pressure injuries, falls, medication management and unplanned weight loss are all easier to get right with a steady team who know the residents. That is why workforce numbers belong on the same page as your clinical indicators rather than in a separate human resources report nobody else reads.

For a view of which numbers are worth looking at week to week rather than once a year, see which numbers an aged care home should check every week. For how we think about aged care reporting more broadly, see our aged care page.

Common questions

What is the Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey?

The Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey is a national collection in which aged care providers report information about their workforce, and the published results sit on GEN Aged Care Data. As at September 2026, the most recent one published there is the 2023 survey, released as a report, a summary report, supplementary materials and a dashboard.

Where can I find aged care workforce vacancy and turnover data?

Published aged care workforce data is on GEN Aged Care Data, under the aged care workforce topic. Start with the survey summary report and the dashboard, then read the supplementary materials for the definitions before you compare anything to your own numbers.

What counts as staff turnover in aged care reporting?

Staff turnover counts staff who leave over a set period, as a share of the workforce over that period, but the exact rule differs between homes and between collections. Check whether casuals, internal transfers and full time equivalent are included, and use the definitions published with the data you are reading.

How is a staff vacancy rate measured in aged care?

A staff vacancy rate is the number of unfilled funded positions at a point in time, divided by the total funded positions, as a percentage. Decide in advance whether shifts covered by agency staff count as filled, and take the snapshot on the same day each month so the series means something.

Is workforce data part of aged care Star Ratings?

Star Ratings for residential aged care has four sub-categories: Residents' Experience, Compliance, Staffing and Quality Measures. Staffing is a rating in its own right, and vacancy and turnover are not published as a separate star, so check the official Star Ratings pages for what the Staffing sub-category covers today.

Sources

• Aged care workforce, GEN Aged Care Data (AIHW), as at September 2026
• Star Ratings for residential aged care, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, as at September 2026