Recently, the "U.S. Energy and Employment Report" was released based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and supplementary surveys of tens of thousands of U.S. energy industry employers. The report comprehensively summarizes energy jobs at the national, state and county levels, and provides data on union rates, demographics, and employers' views on growth and recruitment by industry, technology and region. USERER began to better track and understand employment in key energy industries in 2016. The study combines corporate surveys with public labor market data to derive estimates of employment and labor characteristics.
The report shows that in 2023, the growth rate of clean energy employment will be more than twice the strong growth rate of the overall U.S. labor market, largely due to the Biden-Harris Invest in the United States agenda that has driven record investment in the clean energy supply chain. The growth rate of clean energy jobs (4.9%) is more than twice the growth rate of jobs in other economic sectors (2.0%), with 149,000 new jobs.
The union rate in the clean energy industry (12.4%) exceeded the energy industry average (11%) for the first time. Union employers reported less difficulty hiring than non-union employers, and both employer groups reported having an easier time hiring workers than last year.
The Biden-Harris administration has spurred a manufacturing boom, particularly in the clean energy sector, with more than 800 facilities announced since 2021, which is reflected in rapid construction job gains. Energy construction employment grew 4.5%, nearly double the 2.3% growth in construction jobs for the overall economy.
Employment increased in all five USEER energy technology categories, including power generation; energy efficiency; fuels; motor vehicles; and, starting in 2023, transmission, distribution, and storage. Clean energy jobs will increase in every state.
Veterans make up 9% of the U.S. energy workforce, higher than their share of the 5% of the total U.S. workforce. The energy workforce is younger than average, with 29% of workers under the age of 30. Latino and Hispanic workers account for nearly a third of the new energy jobs in 2023, adding 79,000.