In Australia, the health and community services industry is the nation's fourth largest, and employment has grown by 39% since 1987, almost twice as much as the labor force as a whole. The industry is the most female dominated in Australia (77%) and the second-largest source of jobs for women. Thirty-eight percent of jobs in the sector are part time. The industry is below average in employer spending on training. A high proportion of workers have university or higher vocational qualifications (49%). Employers surveyed were moderately satisfied with vocational education and training (VET) graduates; their highest priority for improvement was in work ethic. This industry was the single largest destination for VET graduates in 1997, and 61.5% of graduates rated their training highly relevant. In contrast to employers, graduates gave high ratings to teachers' knowledge. (An appendix contains three tables of statistics: national shifts in employment in various industries in Australia; numbers of persons employed in various occupations in the health and community services industry from 1987-1996; and educational attainment of persons in occupations within the industry.) (KC)