US clean energy job growth rate doubles that of total jobs, Reuters report

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. clean energy jobs will grow in 2023 at more than twice the rate of total jobs in the country, and unionization in the clean energy sector has surpassed the rate in the broader energy industry for the first time, the Department of Energy said. Wednesday.

Employment in clean energy businesses — including wind, solar, nuclear and battery storage — grew by 142,000 jobs, or 4.2 percent last year, versus a 3.9 percent increase in 2022, it said. says the US Energy and Employment Report. The rate was above the overall US job growth rate of 2% in 2023.

Unionization rates in clean energy reached 12.4%, more than 11% of the total energy business, the statement said. That was driven by growth in the construction and utility industries and after legislation passed in 2022, including the bipartisan CHIPS Act and President Joe Biden’s Inflation Relief Act, the department said.

Clean energy construction jobs, driven by legislation and private sector investment, “are expected to continue for decades to build the clean energy infrastructure we need,” Betony Jones, chief energy department of the Department of Energy. call. While union members “may be moving from project to project, there is a continuity to that activity for workers to make a career in that industry,” she said.

Employment in the utility and rooftop solar industries rose 5.3 percent, adding more than 18,000 jobs, the release said. The solar industry in California, the nation’s most populous state, says it has lost more than 17,000 jobs because of high interest rates and the state’s cut in net metering rates, which allow customers to be credited for excess power which the panels on the roof generate.

New fossil fuel jobs were mixed. The labor force increased by more than 77,000, or 13.3 percent, while oil jobs fell by more than 44,000, or 6 percent. Coal jobs fell by nearly 8,500, or 5.3 percent, as power generation continued to shift from coal to gas, wind and solar. White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters the report showed the administration’s commitment to both energy and climate security.

Energy remained a predominantly male workforce, averaging 73% in 2023, compared to the national workforce average of 53% male, the same figures as the previous year. Women accounted for about half of the energy jobs added in 2022, but only 17 percent of the jobs added in 2023, the report said.