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About 227,000 jobs—almost 38 percent of all wage and salary jobs in the utilities industry—were in production or installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (table 3). About 23 percent of jobs were in office and administrative support occupations; almost 14 percent were in professional and related occupations; and about 13 percent were in management, business, and financial occupations. The remaining jobs were in construction, transportation, sales, and service occupations.
Workers in production and installation, maintenance, and repair occupations install and maintain pipelines and powerlines, operate and fix plant machinery, and monitor treatment processes. For example, electrical powerline installers and repairers install and repair cables or wires used in electrical power or distribution systems. They install insulators, wooden poles, and light-duty or heavy-duty transmission towers. First-line supervisors and managers directly supervise and coordinate the activities of production and repair workers. These supervisors ensure that workers use and maintain equipment and materials properly and efficiently to maximize productivity.
Production occupations include power plant operators, power distributors, and dispatchers, and water and liquid waste treatment plant operators. Power plant operators control or operate machinery, such as stream-driven turbine generators, to generate electric power, often using control boards or semi-automatic equipment. Power distributors and dispatchers coordinate, regulate, or distribute electricity or steam in generating stations, over transmission lines to substations, and over electric power lines. Water and liquid waste treatment plant and system operators control the process of treating water or wastewater, take samples of water for testing, and may perform maintenance of treatment plants.
Industrial machinery mechanics install, repair, and maintain machinery in power generating stations, gas plants, and water treatment plants. They repair and maintain the mechanical components of generators, waterwheels, water-inlet controls, and piping in generating stations; steam boilers, condensers, pumps, compressors, and similar equipment in gas manufacturing plants; and equipment used to process and distribute water for public and industrial uses.
General maintenance and repair workers perform work involving a variety of maintenance skills to keep machines, mechanical equipment, and the structure of an establishment in repair. Generally found in small establishments, these workers have duties that may involve pipefitting, boilermaking, electrical work, carpentry, welding, and installing new equipment.
Office and administrative support occupations account for about a quarter of jobs in the utilities industry. Customer service representatives interview applicants for water, gas, and electric service. They talk with customers by phone or in person and receive orders for installation, turn-on, discontinuance, or change in service. General office clerks may do bookkeeping, typing, stenography, office machine operation, and filing. Utilities meter readers read electric, gas, water, or steam consumption meters visually or remotely using radio transmitters and record the volume used by residential and industrial customers. Financial clerks, such as bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, compute, classify, and record numerical data to keep financial records complete. They perform any combination of routine calculating, posting, and verifying duties to obtain primary financial data for use in maintaining accounting records.
Professional and related occupations in this industry include engineers and computer specialists. Engineers develop technologies that allow, for example, utilities to produce and transmit gas and electricity more efficiently and water more cleanly. They also may develop improved methods of landfill or wastewater treatment operations in order to maintain compliance with government regulations. Computer specialists develop computer systems to automate utility processes; provide plant simulators for operator training; and improve operator decision making. Engineering technicians assist engineers in research activities and may conduct some research independently.
Managers and administrators in the utilities industry plan, organize, direct, and coordinate management activities. They often are responsible for maintaining an adequate supply of electricity, gas, water, steam, or sanitation service.
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Persons with college training in advanced technology will have the best opportunities.
Employment in water and sewage systems is projected to grow, while other segments of the industry are projected to decline.
Because the utilities industry consists of many different companies and products, skills developed in one segment of the industry may not be transferable to other segments.
Production workers’ earnings are significantly higher than in most other industries.
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Electricity, gas, and water are produced and used continuously throughout each day. As a result, split, weekend, and night shifts are common for utility workers. The average workweek for production workers in utilities was 40.9 hours in 2002, compared with 33.6 hours for all trade, transportation, and utilities industries, and 33.9 hours for all private industries. Employees often must work overtime to accommodate peaks in demand and to repair damage caused by storms, cold weather, accidents, and other occurrences. The industry employs relatively few part-time workers.
The hazards of working with electricity, natural gas, treatment chemicals, and wastes can be substantial, but generally are avoided by following rigorous safety procedures. Protective gear such as rubber gloves with long sleeves, nonsparking maintenance equipment, and body suits with breathing devices designed to filter out any harmful fumes are mandatory for work in dangerous environs. Employees also undergo extensive training on working with hazardous materials and utility company safety measures.
In 2002, the utilities industry reported 5.0 cases of work-related injury or illness per 100 full-time workers, compared with an average of 5.3 cases for all private industries, and 7.2 cases for manufacturing industries.
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Utilities employed about 600,000 workers in 2002. Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution provided almost 3 in 4 jobs.
The diversity of production processes in the utilities industry was reflected in the size of the establishments that made up the industry. For example, the electric power and natural gas distribution sectors consisted of relatively large plants. In 2002, electric power generation, transmission, and distribution plants employed an average of about 55 workers per establishment. On the other hand, the water, sewage, and other systems sector employed an average of only 8 workers per establishment.
Although many establishments are small, most utilities jobs were in establishments with 100 or more workers.
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Overall, production workers in the utilities industry had average weekly earnings of $978 in 2002. Earnings varied by industry segment within utilities. Average weekly earnings for production workers were highest in natural gas distribution ($1,009) and electric power generation, transmission, and distribution ($1,000); and lowest in water, sewage, and other systems ($689).
Earnings in utilities were generally higher than earnings in other industries. The hourly earnings for production workers in utilities averaged $23.94 in 2002, compared with $14.95 in all private industry. This was due in part to more overtime and weekend work—as utility plant operations must be monitored 24 hours a day—which commands higher hourly rates.
In 2002, almost a third of workers in utilities were union members or covered by union contracts, more than double the proportion for all industries.
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Wage and salary employment in utilities is expected to decline 6 percent between 2002 and 2012, compared with an increase of about 16 percent for all industries combined. Projected employment change varies by industry segment, as shown in table 6. Although electric power and natural gas are essential to everyday life, employment declines will result from improved production methods and technology, energy conservation by consumers and more efficient appliances, and a more competitive regulatory environment.
Reorganization of electric and gas utilities has increased competition and provided incentives for improved efficiency. For example, nonutility generators of electricity, such as a major industrial plant operating its own power generators, are permitted to sell their excess electricity to utilities at competitive rates. Also, independent power producers can build electric power generating plants for the sole purpose of selling their power to utilities. These producers generally build gas-turbine generating plants, which have lower construction and environmental costs, employ fewer workers, and usually can sell electric power more cheaply than the coal-powered steam-turbine generator plants.
In the gas transmission and distribution industry, regulatory changes now allow wholesale buyers to purchase gas at competitive rates from any producer and to use the gas pipeline transmission network to transport the gas. This process also is occurring at the distribution level. These changes have caused an increase in gas and electric utility mergers, workforce reductions, and the redesign and reallocation of job duties in a process that will continue through the 2002-12 projection period.
New and continuing energy policies also provide investment tax credits for research and development of renewable sources of energy and ways to improve the efficiency of equipment used in electric utilities. As a result, electric utilities will continue to increase the productivity of their plants and workers, resulting in a slowdown in employment opportunities. However, highly trained technical personnel with the education and experience to take advantage of new developments in electric utilities should face good prospects for employment.
In the water and sewage systems industries, regulatory changes have had the opposite impact. Regulations in these industries have not been designed to increase competition, but to increase the number of contaminants that must be monitored and treated and to tighten the environmental impact standards of these industries, resulting in increased employment.
Water and sewage systems services are projected to be the only growing segment of utilities, with employment projected to increase 46 percent from 2002 to 2012. This segment is expected to grow as a result of an increase in the amount of waste generated from a growing population. Also, newly constructed housing developments are more likely to have community water supplies and waste treatment facilities, increasing demand for these services.
Technology and automation will adversely affect natural gas distribution utilities employment. Although natural gas is an increasingly popular choice among homeowners, businesses, and electric utilities, the efficiency of natural gas furnaces has increased considerably, thereby reducing average home consumption. These energy-conserving technologies will likely continue to minimize the relative use of natural gas by most industries and by individual homes. In addition, utilities in colder climates have increasingly automated their meter reading and billing procedures. Combined, these developments are projected to result in a decrease in employment in natural gas distribution services.
In general, persons with college training in advanced technology will have the best opportunities in utilities industries. Computer systems analysts and network systems and data communications analysts are expected to be among the fastest growing occupations in the professional and related occupations group, as plants emphasize automation and productivity. Some office and administrative support workers, such as utilities meter readers and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, are among those affected by increasing automation. Technologies including radio-transmitted meter reading and computerized billing procedures are expected to decrease employment.
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1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Career Guide to Industries, 2004-05 Edition, Utilities, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs018.htm (visited November 26, 2004).
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