Laundry and Dry Cleaning Machine Operator

OFO Code: 715701

Last checked 7 October 2026

PATHLENS

1. Occupation identity

OFO code: 715701
Occupation: Laundry and Dry Cleaning Machine Operator
Classification: OFO 2021
Major group: PLANT AND MACHINE OPERATORS AND ASSEMBLERS
Unit group: 7157 · Laundry Machine Operators

Official description
Laundry machine operators operate laundry, dry cleaning, pressing and fabric treatment machines in laundries and dry-cleaning establishments.

More official OFO detail

Alternative titles: Drycleaner, Press Machine Operator

Specialisations: Folding Machine Operator (Laundry), Washing Machine Operator, Launderer

Placing articles on shelves and hanging articles for delivery and collection
Smoothing articles and guiding them through cleaning and pressing machines
Placing sorted articles into receptacles and onto conveyor belts for moving to repair and cleaning areas
Checking and removing stains from garments, and replacing buttons and making minor repairs
Adding cleaning agents and starches to articles;
Packaging articles and preparing orders for despatch
Sorting articles for cleaning according to the type colour, fabric and cleaning treatment required
Stopping and starting machines to untangle, straighten and remove articles
Loading and unloading washing machines, driers and extractors

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

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Employer size Employer sector

Your EE profile Black South African Woman Person with a disability Foreign national

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5. Qualification

Qualification evidence pending.

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6. Study funding

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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

Career explorationNCAP / KhethaOfficial destination ↗QualificationQCTOOfficial destination ↗Public employment serviceESSA / labour centreOfficial destination ↗

9. Decision tools

Compare this career → Plan qualification pathway → Test salary against household costs →

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.