The 2024 Q4 edition of Workskil Australia’s ‘Work Watch’ report has found demand for truck drivers saw the occupation named as the seventh-highest recruiting job in Australia over the period.
WorkSkil Australia is a national not-for-profit employment services provider that aims to place individuals in jobs. Currently, it supports over 60,000 individuals per year to find and maintain employment.
Workskil’s data shows the number of new hires in truck driving through the organisation in the September 2024 quarter rose 30.1 per cent, leading it to be the seventh-highest recruiting job in the final quarter of 2023.
40 per cent of drivers are also staying in their roles for longer than 26 weeks – or six months – which Work Watch identifies as a key driver in financial security for employees and a unique benefit of the sector when compared to other shorter-term roles.
The transport and logistics sector was also listed as the third-highest hiring industry in the quarter, behind trades & services and hospitality & tourism.
Workskil Australia CEO Nicole Dwyer says the organisation is seeing large numbers of people turning to trucking for its transferrable skills within the wider logistics sector.
“We help a large number of job seekers obtain trucking licences to work in areas like traffic control to logistics and on large infrastructure sites,” Dwyer says.
“It’s a very transferrable skill.
“The overall rise in job placements is very pleasing to see but it doesn’t hide the reality that it is increasingly harder for disadvantaged Australians to find a home, pay their bills and hold down a job.”
“Often, homelessness goes unreported because many job seekers do not consider couch surfing to be a form of homelessness.
“However, it is difficult to sustain employment when the most basic necessities are unmet.
“The good, the bad and the ugly in the employment market is very clearly on show.”
Builder’s labourers, sales assistants, commercial cleaners, road traffic controllers, call or contact centre operators, and factory process workers were the only roles that ranked above truck drivers in Workskil’s filled roles for the final quarter of 2024.
The full Workskil Australia September quarter Work Watch report is available here.
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