In 2023, the US clean energy sector added 142,000 jobs, making up more than half of new energy jobs and signalling the impact of the Biden administration’s green infrastructure investment push.
According to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) United States Energy & Employment Report (USEER) 2024, the number of US energy sector jobs grew by 3% in 2023, with the clean energy sector’s employment growth making up 56% of this increase. Just under 5% of total new jobs across the US were in clean energy.
The clean energy sector now makes up 42% of all energy jobs, according to the report.
Idaho had the fastest clean energy growth out of all states with a 7% increase, followed by Texas at 6% and New Mexico at 5.9%.
The DOE’s report added that unionisation rates in clean energy grew to 12.4%, surpassing the unionisation rate of 11% in the traditional energy sector for the first time. Only 24% of unionised companies reported to the DOE that it was difficult to find workers, compared with 40% of non-union companies. Union and non-union companies found it easier to hire relative to 2022, the DOE said.
US Energy Secretary Jennifer M Granholm said: “Our policies are working. We are now starting to see the job impacts of investments made through the infrastructure and inflation reduction laws – first in construction and as America builds more of these factories, we will see hundreds of thousands more.”
“The data clearly show that clean energy means jobs – good jobs, union jobs and jobs retained – in communities across the country as we race to dominate the global clean energy economy.”
Looking at specific sectors, solar and wind saw a job growth rate of 5.3% and 4.5%, respectively. The energy efficiency sector, which includes jobs relating to the installation of home energy improvements eligible for tax breaks under the Inflation Reduction Act, grew at a rate of 3.4%.
The DOE this year received 42,000 survey responses from businesses across the US, the highest number the department has on record for its annual USEER report.
