Competitive, noncompetitive, unclassified

Transcript

Every New Jersey civil service title sits in a group, and the group decides how people get the job.

The law sorts titles into the career service, the senior executive service, and the unclassified service. The career service has two divisions, competitive and noncompetitive.

Competitive titles go through the examination process: an exam, a ranked list, a certification. That's the biggest group, over 3,900 titles.

Noncompetitive titles skip the ranked exam, but they still come with conditions. Every appointee has to meet the job specification's minimum requirements and finish a working test period. One reason a title lands here: competitive testing isn't practicable for that kind of work. There are over 1,000 of them.

Unclassified titles sit outside the career service. The rules put a title there when a statute says so, or when the Commission finds it isn't practicable to test merit and fitness by exam and permanent appointments aren't appropriate. There are over 1,200 unclassified titles.

One more thing. You'll hear people say classified service. That phrase doesn't appear in any section of the statute or the rules. They say career service.

Most title pages show their class of service. Look up yours on NJ Civil Service Navigator.