Growing government support has been evident during the past decade for macro-level workforce planning to ensure that future populations have access to appropriate health care services. Population ageing is impacting on workforce requirements and on workforce supply within Australia and internationally. Changes in financing and the organisation of health services are impacting on the availability of training and on the quality of working life. The age and gender profile and career expectations of young Australians are changing. These factors are all adding to the importance and complexity of workforce planning. This paper draws on data from various sources to describe Australia's hospital workforce, to explore supply-side workforce trends and to discuss some contemporary issues of concern to policy makers and workforce planners. The paper finds that in recent years there has been a 3 per cent decline in the number of full time equivalent staff in public hospitals, while the number in the private hospital workforce has increased by 28 per cent. The paper concludes that, nationally, there are serious limitations in the data available to describe and monitor the hospital workforce and that there is a need to remedy this situation.