Apparently not.

The Department of Immigration has placed Optometry on a list of in demand occupations.

There is a shortage of many skills in Australia, particularly in the trades and resources sector. The commodities boom in the growth states of WA and Queensland has led to overall shortage of skilled and unskilled workers. This is evidenced by the wages explosion, caused by employers out bidding each other for scarce workers.

Against this backdrop of skills shortages, record levels of low unemployment, and retiring baby boomer is it any wonder that Optometry firms are having difficulty recruiting Optometrists? These are the very firms that have made submissions to Department of Immigration to have Optometry placed on a list of in demand occupations.

But is there actually an under supply of optometrists?

There are certainly no shortage of Optometry businesses. It seems like even the smallest shopping centre has 2 or 3. Larger shopping districts such as Chadstone in Sydney have about 40 practices in a few miles radius of each other. If there were truly a shortage of Optometrists then patients would have to wait weeks or months to get an appointment. However the average waiting time to get an appointment is about 1 hour.

What does the research say about workforce levels? Horton et al published The Australian Optometric Workforce (2005) where they looked at workforce supply and demand. They concluded that there were enough Optometrists for the Australian population. As part of their study, Horton et al refined the actual numbers of Optometrists to Equivalent Full Time Optometrists (EFTO). This was more accurate since not all optometrists work full time. They found that the average EFTO performed 8 consultations per day, which equates to 1825 per annum. They also assumed that the average consultation would take 30 mins, but there was also an extra 15 mins of administration associated with each and every consultation. This means that an average optometrist would spend 6 hours per day consulting with clients.

Given that an EFTO works 8 hrs per day there is spare capacity. However on closer examination this spare capacity is understated.

Horton et al made an extremely questionable assumption. They assumed that the average exam take 45 mins. Anecdotal evidence suggests hat 30 mins would be more accurate. This means they have probably overestimated the time optometrists spend consulting by 50%. The average optometrist spends just 4 hours per day working with patients.

What are the consequences of this on their conclusions? While they are correct in say that there are enough optometrists to serve the needs of the Australian population its because there is a large oversupply of Optometrists. There are enough optometrists in Australia to provide for the eyecare needs of not only Australia, but also New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. In other words they could service a population of 40 million quite comfortably.

The lack of optometrists is in fact and oversupply of optical businesses. Each one of these businesses is trying to secure the services of an optometrist. Once employed, the optometrist spends half their day idly waiting for patients to arrive.