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Employment in Social and Caring roles comprises 5.4% of national employment, around 110,000 persons. 57% of the persons employed in the sector are care workers or home carers, with childminders making up a significant proportion of employees.
Figure 1: Data from National Skills Bulletin, 2017. SOLAS Skills and Labour Market Research Unit.
The number of social workers and welfare professionals grew strongly between 2011 and 2016, increasing by an annual average of 5.5%. But in other professions there was negative growth, for example youth and community workers declined by 6.4% and welfare and housing associate professionals declined by 6.2%. It is expected, however, that the aging population will also drive demand for more care workers in the coming years. But the sector is highly dependent on government policy and public funding, as can be seen by the differing growth rates for social workers and youth workers, influenced by government priorities.
Figure 2: Data from National Skills Bulletin, 2017. SOLAS Skills and Labour Market Research Unit.
Care workers and childminders also see a high rate of people coming into and out of the profession, as well as part time employment, indicating that for most it is a transitory stage in their career rather than a long term job. Supporting this, they are one of the occupations with the highest number of transitions between employers.
Following from the National Skills Bulletin, 2017Key points for selected Social and Care occupations
Shortage Indicators
Ireland’s ageing population will be a key driver of the future demand for care workers. The extent to which this requirement translates into employment growth will partly depend on Government policy, given that a significant share of the care services is publicly funded. Some employment expansion was already evident in recent job announcements including those by TTM Healthcare, Nua Healthcare and Ardmore Care.
Employment in child-minding declined in the most recent time period, with the fall in the number of children in the relevant age cohort (aged 3-5 years) likely to have an impact in the short term. However, government initiatives, such as the expansion of the ECCE scheme, have led to the introduction of minimum qualification levels for childcare workers (with leaders required to have a minimum of NFQ Level 6 and a forthcoming EU requirement for a level 7 qualification); this may cause difficulties in recruiting appropriately qualified staff due to issues such as wages.
In 2016, care workers and childminders combined accounted for 70% of employment in the selected social and care occupations. Employment was mostly part-time with females accounting for the majority of persons employed. These two occupations are characterised by high turnover rates, with 3,700 and 3,200 transitions respectively due to a change of employer in 2016. In addition, these were among occupations with the highest number of transitions between employment and economic inactivity.
In 2016, there were 6,700 awards in caring/nursing studies at level 5 and 4,675 in childcare (levels 5 and 6). There were also over 900 awards at third level awards (NFQ 6- 8) in areas such as early childhood care, health and education. In addition, there were approximately 3,300 job ready carers and 300 child-minders seeking employment in April 2017.
Given the high level of turnover, as well as the high volume of job vacancies advertised, it is recognised that some employers may be experiencing difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified care and childcare workers.
Although there are issues in relation to geographical mobility and a lack of attractiveness of the job (e.g. temporary contract), there is currently no shortage of care workers and childminders. However, changing demographics, along with Government policy, will impact on the demand for these skills in the short to medium term.