FIFO Jobs Market Snapshot Australia: Roles and Locations in September 2026

Where is FIFO hiring activity showing up, and which types of work appear most often? We analysed all 969 jobs visible on FIFO Careers on 29 September 2026 to find out.

Western Australia accounted for 483 ads, or 49.8% of the snapshot. Queensland followed with 241 (24.9%), then New South Wales with 129 (13.3%). The most common broad categories attached to ads were Mining Operations, Underground Mining and Mining Maintenance. Among more specific role labels, Mining Electrician, Heavy Equipment Operator, Housekeeping, Industrial Electrician and FIFO Hospitality appeared frequently.

That makes these categories useful places to investigate. It does not prove that they are Australia’s biggest skills shortages or predict where hiring will be strongest next month. This is a dated snapshot of one specialist job board, not the whole labour market.

How this FIFO jobs snapshot was built

We captured every public FIFO Careers job results page on 29 September 2026 and deduplicated listings by their public job ID. The 49 pages reconciled to the live total of 969 jobs.

For each ad, we recorded its company profile, location label and attached role categories. A job could carry more than one category, for example, an electrical maintenance job might be tagged for both mining maintenance and mining electrician work. Category counts therefore overlap and should not be added together.

The dataset contained:

• 969 active ads with a location label

• 82 company profiles with active ads, representing 81 distinct display names

• listings across every Australian state and territory, plus five ads whose labels did not fit a state or territory roll-up

The public FIFO Careers company directory displayed 183 profiles on the same date.

Because job ads open and close, use the tables to understand the shape of the market on the review date, then check the live FIFO jobs page before making an application decision.

Where FIFO Careers job ads are concentrated

Almost three-quarters of the ads carried a Western Australian or Queensland location label.

Five other job ads had location labels outside that Australian state-and-territory grouping. Percentages are calculated against all 969 ads, so the state rows do not total exactly 100%.

Western Australia’s lead was not limited to one label. The largest exact labels were Perth (147 ads), Western Australia without a city (133) and Kalgoorlie (43). In Queensland, the largest labels were Queensland without a city (36), Brisbane (35), Moranbah (21), Cloncurry (15) and Weipa (14). Adelaide appeared on 22 ads, while Cobar appeared on 20.

The location label may describe the worksite, a regional hub, a point of hire or a broader state. Open the job ad and confirm the site, flight origin, travel arrangements and residential, FIFO or DIDO status before applying.

Use the FIFO jobs by location directory to move from this dated snapshot to current results. You can also go directly to live searches for Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia or the Northern Territory.

Which FIFO role categories appear most often

The broadest category signals were mining operations, underground mining and mining maintenance.

Those broad labels show the overall shape of the listings, but a jobseeker usually needs a more specific search. The leading specific role or work-area labels were:

These rows overlap. One ad may appear under a broad mining category and several specific categories, so the figures are a frequency ranking rather than a partition of all jobs.

The live role pages may also show different totals. They update after this snapshot and can match related titles, skills and categories beyond the single attached category counted here. Browse current Mining Operations jobs, Underground Mining jobs, Mining Maintenance jobs, Mining Electrician jobs, Heavy Equipment Operator jobs, Housekeeping jobs, FIFO Hospitality jobs or Mining Engineering jobs for the current position.

Which company profiles have the most current ads

The employer table shows where ads were concentrated on FIFO Careers at the time of the snapshot. It is not a ranking of company size, job quality, recruitment difficulty or future hiring.

High ad volume can reflect a large workforce, multiple sites, a recruitment campaign, staff turnover, seasonal work or the way vacancies are syndicated. It does not, on its own, explain why a company is hiring. Open the profile and each advertisement before drawing a conclusion.

How to use this snapshot in your job search

The best use of this data is to narrow your research—not to chase the largest number regardless of fit.

1. Choose a role family you can support with evidence. A large category is not automatically an entry-level category. Start with work you are already qualified or experienced to do, then compare adjacent FIFO versions of that work.

2. Read several current ads, not just one. Note requirements that repeat across employers and separate them from a preference or site-specific condition that appears once. Requirements can vary by role, employer, project, site and jurisdiction.

3. Check the location and point of hire. A Perth or Brisbane label does not necessarily mean the work is in that city. Confirm where the site is, where travel starts and whether the arrangement is FIFO, DIDO or residential.

4. Apply to the current listing. Counts in an article expire. The live ad is the authority for whether the role is still open, what evidence is required and how to apply.

If you are exploring rather than ready to apply, save two or three precise searches—for example, one role page and one location page—and compare new ads over several weeks. That gives you a better view of recurring requirements than a single market snapshot.

What these numbers do not prove

This analysis tells us what was visible on FIFO Careers on 29 September 2026. It does not measure every FIFO vacancy in Australia, unadvertised hiring, applicant numbers, time to fill, turnover, workforce size or an official skills shortage.

It also cannot tell you your chance of being hired. A category with many ads may still require a trade licence, technical qualification, demonstrated experience or employer-specific screening. A category with fewer ads may be a stronger personal fit.

Roles that are currently common on FIFO Careers are not guaranteed to be representative of the entire market, but do give some insights. For currently available positions, browse all live FIFO jobs and verify the details in each advertisement.

Source note: FIFO Careers public job and company pages, captured 29 September 2026 (Australia/Sydney). Job records were deduplicated by public job ID. State counts were derived from the location label attached to each ad. Category counts include every category attached to an ad and therefore overlap.