August 2025

Employee attitudes in this sector is a mix of stability and frustration. Many workers appreciate the job security and steady pay that come with a utilities job. After all, utilities do count as a part of autonomous spending in the United States. However, worker sentiment on social media reveals a growing sense of frustration, particularly among public service workers. Many feel that morale has gone down due to a lack of leadership support and extended hiring freezes, which increase the workload on existing staff. A key finding from a study on municipal utility workers is that job satisfaction is highly dependent on an employee's emotional connection to the organization and a sense of pride in their work, rather than just their interactions with coworkers. When this connection is lost due to poor management or a heavy workload, it often leads to what some describe as a "silent resignation," where an employee stops going above and beyond and simply does the bare minimum.

The utilities and services sector is showing little change in employment over the last month. While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that overall utilities and services payroll employment has been stagnant since April, the utilities sector has remained relatively stable. Increased prices of water in the midwest U.S., nation-wide increases in fueld and energy costs, and cost hikes that outpace inflation have allowed utilities to either thrive or hold strong with their current strategies. Hiring freezes and cost-cutting measures are taking place in some public service organizations, but the core utilities sector is not experiencing significant layoffs. The long-term outlook for the industry is stable, as it provides essential services that are not heavily affected by short-term economic fluctuations.