PathLensSOUTH AFRICA · CLEARER PATHS. BRIGHTER OPTIONS.
Upholsterer
OFO Code: 683401
Last checked 7 October 2026
1. Occupation identity
- OFO code
- 683401
- Occupation
- Upholsterer
- Classification
- OFO 2021
- Major group
- SKILLED AGRICULTURAL, FORESTRY, FISHERY, CRAFT AND RELATED TRADES WORKERS
- Unit group
- 6834 · Upholsterers and Related Workers
Official description
Upholsterers and related workers install, repair and replace upholstery of furniture, fixtures, orthopaedic appliances; seats, panels, convertible and vinyl tops and other furnishings of automobiles, railway coaches, aircraft, ships and similar items with fabric, leather, rexine or other upholstery material. They also make and repair cushions, quilts and mattresses.
Trade occupation in the OFO source
More official OFO detail
Specialisations: Upholsterer and Sail Maker, Mattress Maker, Furniture Upholsterer
- Making upholstery patterns from sketches, customer descriptions or blueprints
- Sewing rips or tears in material, or creating tufting, using needle and thread
- Sewing upholstery materials by hand to seam cushions and joining sections of covering materials
- Making quilts, cushions and mattresses
- Renovating antique furniture using a variety of tools including ripping chisels, magnetic hammers and long needles
- Repairing raw hide covering of artificial limbs
- Laying out, cutting, fabricating and installing upholstery in aircrafts, motor vehicles, railway cars, boats and ships
- Laying out, measuring and cutting upholstery materials following patterns, templates, sketches, or design specifications
- Tacking, gluing or sewing ornamental trims, buckles, braids, buttons and other accessories to covers or frames on upholstered items
- Discussing upholstery fabric, colour, and style with customers and providing cost estimate for upholstering furniture or other items
- Installing, arranging and securing springs, padding and covering material to furniture frames
- Collaborating with interior designers to decorate rooms and coordinate furnishing fabrics
2. Demand status
Demand evidence unavailable
No approved governed OIHD graph relationship is available on this deployment for this OFO code.
PathLens does not fall back to legacy specimen demand flags when governed evidence is unavailable.
A national demand signal is not a promise of a vacancy in your town.
3. Salary evidence
No approved governed salary observation or sourced snapshot salary record is available for this OFO code yet.
Open remuneration history & calculator →4. Quick EE check
How much might Employment Equity matter in this job context?
Answer three quick questions for a rough read. This is workforce context, not a hiring decision.
Select the employer size and your profile to get a quick read.
5. Qualification
Qualification evidence pending.
Understand NQF levels, institutions & recognition → Build my qualification pathway →6. Study funding
Check all funding options, eligibility & obligations →A funding match will only be shown once a recognised qualification or study route has been identified.
7. Industry, sector and provincial context
National occupation classification. Industry and provincial context are shown only where a separate official source supports the link.
No source-backed modern OFO↔SIC 7 industry link has been ingested for this occupation yet. PathLens does not infer one from the job title.
Browse the official South African industry classification →8. Next steps — official links
9. Decision tools
10. Sources for this page
- DHET Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO 2021) · Ingested · identity spine active
Canonical OFO identity data has been ingested and validated. 1511 occupation records are recorded in the ingest artifact. - DHET Occupations in High Demand · Validated pipeline · graph publication not confirmed
The governed OIHD pipeline is active, but a successful populated graph run is not currently confirmed on this deployment. - Critical Skills List · Monitored · occupation linkage pending
Official migration sources are monitored, but PathLens does not infer visa eligibility or occupation-level eligibility from monitoring alone. - QCTO qualifications and occupational certificates · Candidate staging ready · not published
Qualification staging and human review are implemented; no qualification↔OFO relationship is published without an explicit source identifier or governed human review. - Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey · Acquisition active · no approved evidence on this deployment
Official QLFS artifact discovery is active. Dataset-specific schema, weighting, reliability and review gates remain separate; a discovered artifact or executable estimator does not itself create a public claim. - SETA Sector Skills Plans / hard-to-fill vacancy tables · Partial · explicit source links only
PathLens preserves explicit source-backed SETA/activity links where present and does not infer modern SIC relationships from occupation titles.