The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released the 2023 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), a comprehensive study designed to track and understand employment trends across the energy sector. As the private sector continues to announce major investments in American-made energy, the 2023 USEER shows that the energy workforce added almost 300,000 jobs (+3.8% growth) in 2022.
Clean energy jobs increased in every state reflecting increased investments. Clean energy jobs grew 3.9% adding 114,000 jobs nationally, increasing to over 40% of total energy jobs. Clean energy technologies, such as solar and wind, accounted for more than 84% of net new electric power generation jobs, adding over 21,000 jobs (+3.6% growth), and jobs related to zero emissions vehicles saw nearly 21% growth, adding over 38,000 jobs.
To achieve the president’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a net zero economy by 2050, energy jobs are expected to expand across the nation. The growth in clean energy jobs was faster than last year’s robust overall job growth.
“The clean energy sector plays a critical role in combating the ongoing climate crisis as well as promoting job creation and economic development in New Hampshire and across the nation,” said U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, whose longstanding efforts to recommit the administration to collecting data and publishing this annual report help guide policy on energy and workforce development.
USEER is a summary of national and state-level employment, workforce, industry, occupation, unionization, demographic and hiring information in key energy technology groups. It began in 2016 to better track and understand employment within key energy sectors that have been difficult-to-impossible to follow using other publicly available data sources. The study combines surveys of businesses with public labor data to produce estimates of employment and workforce characteristics.
Clean Energy Areas Experiencing Significant Job Growth:
- Clean Vehicles: All clean vehicle jobs – in battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen/fuel cell vehicles – exceeded pre-COVID-19 employment levels. Battery electric vehicle jobs grew most rapidly, adding more than 28,000 jobs (up 27%).
- Solar: The technology that employs the most workers, solar grew by 12,000 new jobs in 2022 (+3.7% growth).
- Wind: New jobs increased by 5,000 in 2022 (+4.5% growth).
- Geothermal: The workforce added 1,000 jobs, growing by 5.0% in 2022.
Clean energy jobs grew across all 50 states and D.C. The top-three states for clean energy jobs growth are California, which added 13,000 jobs (+3.2%); West Virginia, which added 7,000 jobs (+19%); and Texas, which added 5,100 jobs (+3.5%).
