These are the services that make our lives comfortable. What would we do without cable? And phones, water, gas and electricity, of course. New Jersey’s utilities industry can be separated into two sectors: the electric, gas, and sanitary services sector, and the communications sector. While jobs within the electric, gas and sanitary service sector are expected to decrease in number over the coming years, the communications sector is expecting a growth spurt. The landscape of both sectors is changing as companies merge with each other and technology becomes more sophisticated.

Jobs in the utilities industry are divided into three main career paths:

• Labor and Skilled Trade Work, which includes such occupations as communication equipment mechanics, installers, and repairers, and water and liquid waste treatment plant and system operators
• Management and Supervision, which includes first-line supervisors and managers of mechanics, installers, and repairers
• Computer Science Application, which includes network systems and data communications analyst, computer systems analyst, and computer software engineer for systems software.

Employers throughout the industry are looking for new employees with higher levels of math and reading skills. Technical and computer skills also are becoming increasingly important as the industry catches up with the technological times.