Meter Reader Job Description: Template, Duties, Requirements & Pay (2026)

A meter reader records how much electricity, gas or water each customer used — on foot, from a vehicle or with a handheld — and increasingly installs, tests and services the meters themselves. The BLS expects the occupation to shrink by double digits over the next decade, and the national smart-meter counts show why. Below is a copy-paste meter reader job description template, what the role pays at a utility versus a municipality, how to write the posting for the job it is becoming, and what it costs to reach candidates on social.

What a meter reader does

The federal occupation is meter readers, utilities: workers who "read meter and record consumption of electricity, gas, water, or steam". O*NET's task list shows how much wider the job has become. Readers still walk or drive established routes and enter readings in handheld computers, then upload them for billing. They also verify readings when consumption looks abnormal, inspect meters for damage, broken seals and unauthorized connections, install new meters and replace broken ones, perform minor repairs, connect and disconnect service, update meter location records, answer customer questions about charges, and report anything that blocks access — O*NET names dogs specifically.

That mix is why the job titles have drifted. O*NET's reported titles for the occupation include meter service technician, meter technician, field technician, utility service worker and water use inspector alongside meter reader. If your posting says "meter reader" but the person will spend half the week swapping meters and doing disconnects, the title is underselling the job and attracting the wrong people.

Who employs them matters for pay. In May 2025, local government (excluding schools and hospitals) employed 9,360 meter readers at a median of $22.12 an hour; utilities employed 6,470 at a median of $30.38. A city water department and an investor-owned electric utility are hiring for the same occupation at very different rates, and candidates who have worked for one know what the other pays.

Meter reader job description template

Copy this into your ATS, replace the bracketed fields, and delete what does not apply. Route type, vehicle and pay go first; they are what a candidate compares.

Requirements: what to keep, what to soften, and what to add

Requirement	What to know
High school diploma	Keep it if your policy requires it; the BLS lists it as the typical entry education, with short-term on-the-job training after hire.
Driver's license and record	Keep it when a vehicle is involved, and define "acceptable" so candidates can self-screen. A CDL is not typically needed for a meter vehicle; do not ask for one out of habit.
Physical demands	Be specific. Miles walked, weather and digging out meter boxes are the honest content. Candidates who have done delivery or route work will recognize the job; others will self-select out, which is the point.
Dogs and access	Add it. O*NET's task list names dogs as an access problem. Say what the employer provides — deterrent spray, reporting procedure, the right to skip a read — and you answer a question every experienced reader asks.
Utility experience	Soften to preferred. The BLS lists short-term on-the-job training as typical; delivery, courier and field service workers learn routes quickly.
Résumé and long civil-service forms	Shorten where you can. If a public employer's application must be long, say that in the ad and put the closing date in the first line, so candidates know the effort is worth it.

Meter reader or meter technician? Writing for the smart-meter era

The BLS projects meter reader employment to fall from about 19,700 jobs in 2025 to 17,600 in 2035, a 10.5% decline. The reason is visible in the Energy Information Administration's meter counts. In 2024, U.S. electric utilities reported about 140.5 million advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters out of about 168.1 million electric meters in total. Standard meters — neither AMI nor the older automated meter reading (AMR) type — fell from about 15.7 million in 2023 to about 8.3 million in 2024 (EIA Electric Power Annual, Table 10.5). AMR meters still numbered about 19.3 million.

Those counts cover electric meters only; EIA does not report water or gas meters in that table, so a water department's own route count is the number that matters for its posting. But the direction is clear for any utility that has deployed AMI: the walking route shrinks and the service work grows. Post the job you will actually have in two years — installs, change-outs, troubleshooting endpoints, turn-ons and shutoffs — and title it accordingly. A meter service technician posting attracts people who want to stay; a meter reader posting at a utility mid-deployment attracts people who will be reassigned.

How to customize it for your setting

Municipal water department

Local government employs more meter readers than utilities do, at a lower median. Lead with what public employment offers instead: schedule, pension or retirement plan, and the path to a water distribution or treatment job. If there is a civil service exam or list, name it and the date. The water and wastewater operator job description covers the licensed role many readers grow into.

Electric or gas utility

With AMI deployed, the role is usually meter service. Name the meter types, the safety training you provide, and whether it is a step toward line or gas crews. The lineman job description covers the apprenticeship path on the electric side.

Contract meter reading and AMI deployment

Contract and deployment work is often project-based. Say how long the project runs, what happens at the end, and whether per-meter or production pay applies. Temporary is fine; unclear is not.

Rural co-ops and small systems

One person may read, install, bill and field calls. Say so, and pay for the range of the job rather than the title.

If you are hiring for utility field roles rather than describing one, the recruiting side — where skilled and field workers actually are, and what the ad has to say — is on our skilled trades recruiting page.

Writing the ad version

The ad on Facebook or Instagram leads with pay, the schedule and the fact that the job is outside. Something like: "Meter Service Tech — $24/hr, Mon–Fri days, city vehicle. Read and install water meters across town. Full benefits and pension. We train. Apply in 60 seconds."

For a public employer whose official application must be completed on a government portal, use the ad and a short interest form to collect name, phone and driver's license status, then follow up with the portal link by text. That keeps the first step short even when the official one is not. Our candidate conversion rate guide explains why the first step matters most, and recruiting text message templates cover the follow-up.

Hiring the rest of a municipal field crew? The water and wastewater operator and sanitation worker job descriptions cover the other public-works roles that recruit from the same local pool.

Pay and employment, national and by industry: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, meter readers, utilities (SOC 43-5041), read via the BLS OEWS data search; projections, openings, entry education and training: BLS Employment Projections 2025–35; tasks and titles: O*NET 43-5041.00; meter counts: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual Table 10.5, Advanced Metering Count by Technology Type, 2015–2024 (released October 16, 2025). All read at source on September 28, 2026. Cost-per-applicant figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark (891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta), report-wide figures only because the benchmark does not segment meter readers; advertising costs only. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire. Updated September 2026.