Revitalizing the Utilities and Waste Industry
The occupational future of utilities and waste roles is falling by the wayside.
This industry faces significant labor market pressures due to workforce shortages, skills gaps in technology, sustainability shifts, regulatory compliance, and high demand for qualified workers to deliver power, water, and waste management services for a growing population. In tight competition with the construction and energy and resources industries, among limited options to globalize or automate key functions, the utilities and waste industry must focus on workforce planning to avoid shocks in business continuity over the short and long term.
Risk Factors
2.05
Occupation Risk Score
Declining occupations needed to deliver utilities and waste services pose an existential threat to society. Service interruptions are not merely inconvenient—they can be life-threatening. Electrical and industrial engineers are exiting the prime-age workforce far faster than they are being replaced, at about a 25% deficit. Water and wastewater treatment operators, heavy machinery operators, environmental technicians, and electricians are all also retiring at rates too high to make current operational models sustainable if nothing changes. Additionally, the maintenance, repair, and installation roles across power, water, waste, and reclamation fields are also declining, risking society's critical infrastructure.
2.65
Market Risk Score
By 2030, 21% of the total US population will be 65 and older—so nearly every geographic market in our study shows prime-age workers exiting the labor market without enough people replacing them. However, that does not mean a drop in service demand. Organizations must focus on reengaging people who are not pursuing 4-year degrees or participating in the labor force by making entry easier, working with municipalities to drive employment programs, campaigning the societal necessity of this work, and offering attractive compensation, benefits, and career stability and growth. For degreed positions, organizations need to work with universities to present the opportunities in these fields, which may be overlooked.
4.00
Industry Risk Score
Power, water, and waste management are among the most localized activities, making local workforce development every organization’s top priority, especially as critical roles exit the workforce faster than they are entering. Globalizing is unfeasible, eliminating this option to supplement labor shortages. While foreign-born workers have been a reliable source of talent over many years, the unknowns of immigration policy can expose organizations to risk of not being able to secure this workforce over the long term. However, AI solutions continue to emerge, and automation has had a positive impact on routing, scheduling, customer self-service, and infrastructure monitoring, especially among water and power green efforts.
2.09
AI Skills Gap Score
While engineering roles are quickly adopting AI, frontline roles in utilities and waste management are among the least exposed to AI, and given the critical need for these workers, organizations must continue exploring smart systems to bridge talent gaps. Recycling robots and pneumatic waste pipes are viable technologies in waste services. Automated scheduling can reduce service delays, while intelligent process automation can monitor assets, making maintenance a proactive practice which reduces downtime and costs. However, technologies like these will require organizations to track the disruptive skills needed as technologies advance, and prioritize upskilling workers—a worthy investment to retain talent in shortage and reduce labor premiums.
Utilities & Waste Organizations in the Fortune 1000
In the Workforce Risk Outlook, Lightcast found little correlation between workforce risk exposure and their Fortune 1000 ranking. C-suite leaders must align their workforce strategies with their quadrant position, as opposed to assuming their revenue makes them immune.
High Risk/High Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant face significant risk of being disrupted in their industry, but also have the financial resources to reduce their risk if they are proactive. These organizations should invest in upskilling for renewable energy, adopt AI-powered grid management and waste processing technologies, and establish apprenticeships to attract the next generation of skilled workers.
High Risk/Lower Scale to Address: Organizations within the riskiest quadrant are lower on the competitive ladder and have less resources to address their incoming risk. These organizations must focus on cross-training employees in multiple utility functions, adopt sensor-based monitoring for predictive maintenance, and explore public-private partnerships to access additional funding and expertise.
Lower Risk/High Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant may not face immediate workforce shortages, but should remain proactive to maintain and reduce their exposure to risk. Expanding smart grid technologies, strengthening cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, and implementing targeted upskilling programs will help sustain a resilient and future-ready workforce.
Lower Risk/Lower Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant, if they are proactive, have a chance to be the disruptors. Specifically, they can disrupt industry competitors in the High Risk/High Scale quadrant. They should focus on circular economy initiatives, invest in AI-driven resource recovery technologies, and build a workforce skilled in green energy and smart utility solutions to disrupt competitors.
See the Full Fortune 1000 List by Lightcast
Ready for Lightcast to prepare you for the storm?
Solving Utilities & Waste Workforce Management
Talent Analyst
Growing Skills to Retain Talent and Control Costs
Organizations must identify where critical skills, especially among emerging technologies and sustainability practices, are located. Pinpointing geographic hotspots, benchmarking compensation to remain competitive, offering supplemental benefits for better work-life balance, and refining recruitment strategies to target workers with transferable skills are important sourcing strategies. Partnerships with local governments, technical schools, and community organizations can help build a pipeline, while creative campaigns bolstering pride in this work can make these roles more attractive to new talent pools.
How Utility & Waste Companies Can Find In-Demand Skills
Using Lightcast Talent Analyst, utilities and waste companies can gain strategic insights into the supply and demand of relevant skills by comparing the frequency of skills present in job postings against skills present in today's workforce. When looking at job postings across power generation, transmission, and distribution, automation skills are rapidly growing at 30.5%, and robotics skills are growing at 13.9%. As these skills become more competitive, organizations can devise strategies to upskill their workforce internally, and avoid hiring externally at a premium.
Talent Transform
Strategies to Sustain Sourcing Among Shortages
Investing in upskilling programs to address disruptive technologies in AI, automation, and robotics is a key strategic focus to retain talent through skills development and career growth. Building clear pathways within the industry also reduces reliance on high-cost labor premiums from buying these skills externally. By prioritizing internal growth, organizations create a loyal workforce equipped with the skills to ensure operational continuity, while aligning compensation with these skills ensures retention and stable labor costs, reducing the risk of interruptions of essential services delivery.
How a Water Company is Sourcing Untapped Talent
A multi-municipal water company is becoming a skills-based hiring leader by removing degree requirements and growing its technical skills internally. By first identifying job titles, skills, and demographics, it gained visibility into long-term trends within the industry and where certification bottlenecks occur. This unlocked the ability to remove barriers to entry and create learning and development opportunities that candidates would have otherwise struggled to pursue on their own. As a result, it has attracted a motivated workforce and improved retention, maintaining its business stability among complex labor dynamics.
