As part of our ‘career viewpoint series’ for forklift operators, this article will discuss the job outlook aspects in forklift operation industry. The Australian Government website joboutlook.gov.au publishes the forklift operator job outlook data on a regular asis. Here are some of the facts that we came across and we believe you, as a current or future forklift driver will find these information useful.

As per the data published by joboutlook.gov.au, there are currently 63500 workers employed as licenced forklift operators out of which 91.7% are employed as full-time with average weekly earnings of $900. Also, vacancy level for the forklift driver job is high and job prospects are 5 out of 10.

With 63500 forklift drivers currently employed the data suggests that employment in forklift industry increased slightly in last 5 years and rose strongly in the long term. With 91.7% forklift drivers working full-time, forklift drivers have a high proportion of full-time jobs. Also, it can be said that forklift drivers can have a better work/life balance with average weekly working hours are 38.5 hours compared to all other occupation where average working hours are 41.3 hours a week.

The job vacancy rate for forklift drivers is high compared to other industries with 14.5 percent annually. The average vacancy rate for other occupations is 13.1 percent. The future employment growth rate is expected to be moderate.