WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Clean energy employment increased by 142,000 jobs in 2023, the annual U.S. Energy and Employment Report finds.
This accounts for more than half of new energy sector jobs and growing at a rate more than twice as large as that for the rest of the energy sector and the U.S. economy overall.
The 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), released by the U.S. Department of Energy, is 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 2024 USEER shows that the energy workforce overall added more than 250,000 jobs in 2023; 56 percent of which were in clean energy.
For the first time unionization rates in clean energy, at 12.4 percent, surpassed the average rate in the energy sector of 11 percent, driven by rapid growth in unionized construction and utility industries. The sectors experiencing significant growth include zero-emission vehicle and renewable energy, as well as transmission, distribution, and storage sectors.
This year's report reflects a record number of survey responses from 42,000 business nationwide.
Jobs in clean energy grew in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Both the solar and wind sectors reported strong job growth - jumping 5.3 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.
'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'll see hundreds of thousands more,' said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
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