The National Cable Television Association reported in 1999 that there was a 500 percent increase in the cable industry workforce between 1975 and 1998—from 25,000 full-time employees to more than 125,000 (Lacey et al., 1999). This major trade organization predicts further expansion of employment opportunities as a result of the need to rebuild and upgrade systems and as new service offerings such as digital video, data delivery, and high-speed cable Internet access are made available across the country.

Most of these jobs will be within one of the three segments that serve as the primary employers of the cable industry. The local cable system directly provides cable service to homes and communities. Multiple-system operators (MSOs) own and operate more than one cable television system. Cable networks provide some of the programming offered by the cable system. Joseph Dominick, Barry Sherman, and Gary Copeland (1996) report that cable is a...