APRIL 2019

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Job vacancies is a critical measure of the trucking market and, in particular, the demand by employers for trucking professionals. Labourforce is a leading supplier of workforce solutions to the trucking industry. As part of our commitment to the sector we commissioned HRO2 Research to produce this unique report on the transport sector.

CHART 1 TRUCKING JOB INDEX

CHART 2 TRUCKING JOB VACANCIES BY JOB TYPE

The Labourforce Trucking Job Index measures demand over the last four years. 2015 is the base year when the Index is set at 100.00.

Trucking job vacancies have risen 60% in the three years to 2018. Demand rose dramatically in the first two years, it peaked in 2017 and slipped back in 2018.

This growth in job opportunities is above the Transport, Logistics and Supply Chain sector more broadly (e.g. across all occupations) and above the national market across all industries.

It is interesting to note that over this three year period the percentage of “Contingent” job vacancies has fallen as a percentage of all job vacancies from 24.9% (one in four) to 18.6% (close to one in five).

This fall contrasts with the belief by many that “contingent” or “insecure” employment is growing. The data suggests otherwise.

The reason for this is that whilst contingent opportunities have grown significantly over the period more traditional permanent employment has grown even faster.

We attribute this to skills and talent shortages. If you can find staff, you are better served employing them on a permanent basis rather than risk losing them under more casual employment arrangements.

JOB TYPE ANALYSIS

TRUCKING JOB INDEX

TRUCKING REPORT

200180160140120100806040200

JOB

IND

EX

(D

EM

AN

D)

2015 2016 2017 2018

181.26

159.66

131.24

100.00

National

Job type 2015 Job type 2018

Temporary & Contract

permanent

24.9%

75.1%permanent

Temporary & Contract

81.4%

18.6%

It comes as no surprise that forklift operations remain the most commonly sought after skill. Every year over 80% of job advertisement list this as a key requirement.

Customer service abilities remain the second most commonly asked for skill by some considerable margin.

However, the percentage of job vacancies requiring this skill has fallen from 49.6% to 43.0%. It seems unlikely that employers are less particular about wanting good customer service skills but it may be more a case of it being assumed so need to expressly state it.

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TRUCKING SKILLS ANALYSISCHART 3 SKILLS REQUIRED PER JOB VACANCIES 2015 -18

CHART 4 CHANGE IN SKILLS REQUIRED PER JOB ADVERTISEMENTS 2015 – 2018

The most obvious change is that over three years the need for logistics skills has risen faster than anything else. This is an interesting development. Employers are not simply looking for drivers but for people who understand the industry more broadly. This reflects the changing nature of work where higher skills are required as automation replaces some of the more basic skills.

So conversely it is not surprising that Heavy Lifting is reducing in importance. It has fallen from 25.9% to 18.9%.

TRUCKING REPORT

100

80

60

40

20

0

10

8

6

4

2

0

-2

-4

-6

-8

PE

R C

EN

TP

ER

CE

NT

Hoisting Equipment Haulage Scheduling Freight Transportation Excavation Lifting Ability

Hoi

stin

g

Equi

pmen

t

Hau

lage

Sche

dulin

g

Frei

ght

Tran

spor

tatio

n

Forklift Operation Customer Service Heavy Lifting LogisticsOccupational Health & SafetyLo

gist

ics

Occ

upat

iona

l H

ealth

& S

afet

y

2015 2016 2017 2018

Fork

lift O

pera

tion

Cus

tom

er S

ervi

ce

Hea

vy L

iftin

g

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APRIL 2019

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS OF LICENSES/CERTIFICATION

CHART 5 TRUCKING JOB VACANCIES BY INDUSTRY

The most significant change in three years is that Food Services has increased from 2.4% to 9.3%. This is because of the growth of home delivery driver jobs. There has been a corresponding 3.5% fall in job opportunities in retail due to disruption in the sector.

The other sector to see a substantial rise in market share is Mining and Resources. This has risen from 17.0% to 19.4%

because of the big increases in production since the mining investment boom.

The share attributed to Transport employers has slipped by 3.3%. This is purely because other industries have grown at an even faster pace, probably in more localised transport. It may also be that some employers have brought their

transport and logistics functions back in house.

A full drivers license remains the most frequently requested license although this is likely to be required more commonly in local delivery roles.

A Heavy Rigid or Heavy Combination Drivers license is required in 17.4% of all vacancies.

CHART 6 LICENSES REQUIRED PER JOB VACANCIES 2015 -18

181614121086420

PE

R C

EN

T

Utilities UtilitiesPublic

Administration & Safety

Public Administration

& Safety

RetailRetail

Construction

Construction

Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Health Care

Health Care

Food ServicesFood ServicesMining

Transport

Other

Full

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

HR

(H

eavy

Rig

id)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

Fork

lift L

icen

se

Endo

rsem

ent

(LF)

or (

LO)

HC

(H

eavy

C

ombi

natio

n)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

MR

(M

ediu

m R

igid

) D

river

’s L

icen

ce

Cla

ss 5

(H

eavy

C

ombi

natio

n)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

Cla

ss 2

(M

ediu

m R

igid

) D

river

’s L

icen

ce

Fork

lift (

F)

Endo

rsem

ent

Cla

ss 4

(H

eavy

Rig

id)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

Dan

gero

us G

oods

(

D)

Endo

rsem

ent

MC

(M

ulti

C

ombi

natio

n)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

2015 2016 2017 2018

Mining

Transport

Other

For more information about Labourforce Impex Transport, Logistics & Supply Chain Job Index

TRUCKING REPORT

www.labourforce.com.au

LABOURFORCE PHONE 13 30 91 EMAIL recruitment@labourforce.com.au

DATA SUPPLIED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY HRO2 RESEARCH PTY LTD

REGIONAL ANALYSIS

Surprisingly there has been an overall decrease in licenses required. It is possible that employers are lowering their prerequisites in their job advertisements to attract more candidates and then assessing compliance.

The only license to have grown substantially in the last three years is the need for a Class 5 (Heavy Combination) Driver’s License.

The other surprise is that the requirement for a Forklift License has fallen 2.0% over the last three years although the need for experience still dominates skills.

CHART 7 CHANGE IN LICENSES REQUIRED PER JOB ADVERTISEMENTS 2015 - 18

CHART 8 TRUCKING JOB VACANCIES BY REGION 2015 -18

New South Wales holds the largest share of job vacancies (32.0%) although this has hardly changed in three years (2015 – 32.7%). The biggest winner is Victoria which has seen its share rise 2.9% from 22.7% to 25.6%.

There has been a corresponding 3.8% decline in Western Australia. While the Mining sector has no doubt seen a rebound in trucking job opportunities the general weakness in WA in other sectors has dragged the state down.

METHODOLOGYHRO2 Research Pty Limited is Australia’s leading specialist in the analysis of job advertisement data. For this report HRO2 Research used Labour Insights, proprietorial software published by Burning Glass Technologies Inc.

Job advertisements in Australia are extracted on a real time basis across over 4,000 on line sources. These comprise employer career sites, recruitment web sites and job boards. Advertisements are deduplicated. Artificial intelligence is then used to code every advertisement across a wide range of fields including location, job type, industry, occupation, skills and certification.

Job data was collected for each calendar year from 2015 to 2018 for the ANZSCO 3 digit Occupation 733 – Truck Drivers.

1.0

0.5

0.0

-0.5

-1.0

-1.5

-2.0

-2.5

PE

R C

EN

T

Full

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

HR

(H

eavy

Rig

id)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

Fork

lift L

icen

se

Endo

rsem

ent

(LF)

or (

LO)

TAS TASNTNT

act act

SA SA

wa

QLD

VIC

NSWwa

QLD

VIC

NSW32.7% 32%

22.7% 25.6%

23%23.6%

12.1% 8.3%

5.2% 5.6%1.2% 1.9%2.2% 1.7%

0.9% 1.3%2015 2018

MR

(M

ediu

m R

igid

) D

river

’s L

icen

ce

HC

(H

eavy

C

ombi

natio

n)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

Cla

ss 5

(H

eavy

C

ombi

natio

n)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

Fork

lift (

F)

Endo

rsem

ent

Cla

ss 4

(H

eavy

Rig

id)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence

Cla

ss 2

(M

ediu

m R

igid

) D

river

’s L

icen

ce

Dan

gero

us G

oods

(

D)

Endo

rsem

ent

MC

(M

ulti

C

ombi

natio

n)

Driv

er’s

Lic

ence