PERSONS WORKING
There were 46,455 persons engaged in the dental industry at the end of June 2010. Of this number 30,669 or 66% were registered medical/health practitioners and other staff providing health care. The remainder were administrative and support staff.
Of those providing direct health care services, 27,775 persons were employed by businesses and 2,893 persons (9.4%) were working on contract, indicating that the number of dental practitioners working on contract is lower than the general practitioner industry but higher than the specialist industry. Working proprietors and partners accounted for 5,980 or 21.5% of persons employed by businesses while the remaining 21,795 or 78.5% were employees. Of all employees, 56.6% were permanent full-time, 26.6% were permanent part-time and the remaining 16.8% were casual/temporary.