Now Hiring: America’s Clean Energy Jobs Grow At Twice National Rate

America’s clean energy industries are booming, creating hundreds of thousands of new high-paying jobs across the country.

New U.S. Department of Energy data reveals clean energy employment grew more than twice as fast as the overall economy, adding 142,000 jobs in 2023, roughly 5% of all new jobs created nationwide last year.

Federal climate policies are the driving force behind this economic engine. Nearly $500 billion has been invested in manufacturing, building, and buying clean energy technologies since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in August 2022 – generating $5-$6 in private investment for every $1 spent in federal funds and creating more than 334,000 jobs over that period.

Clean energy jobs create economic mobility, with 21% higher wages than average, increasing access to unions, and expanding accessibility – 75% of expected jobs from IRA investments won’t require a four-year degree. The clean energy jobs boom is also happening in the communities that need it most: 81% of investment in clean energy industries since the IRA passed has flowed into counties with below-average weekly wages.

From wind turbine technician being the fastest-growing job in America to auto manufacturing jobs hitting a 34-year peak – all signs point to clean energy as the path to building a stronger U.S. economy.

“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,” said U.S. DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

America Added 400,000 New Clean Energy Jobs Since 2020

The new jobs growth data comes from DOE’s 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Report, a comprehensive study designed to track and understand employment trends across the energy sector.

Energy industry job growth wasn’t always tracked by publicly available data so the USEER report, created in 2016, utilizes survey responses from business nationwide to augment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and estimate overall employment and workforce trends with a record 42,000 survey responses this year.

Digging into the USEER data reveals several interesting trends:

• Since 2020, America has added 400,000 clean energy jobs at a nearly 13% growth rate
• In 2023, clean energy jobs grew 4.2%, more than twice the overall national job growth rate.
• All 50 states and the District of Columbia added clean energy jobs in 2023, led by Idaho Texas, and New Mexico.
• While clean energy jobs surged, fossil fuel jobs slumped with just 24,500 new net jobs – 77,000 new jobs in natural gas but 44,000 lost jobs in petroleum and 8,500 lost jobs in coal.
• The energy construction sector added nearly 90,000 new jobs with 28,000 jobs of those jobs building new battery and solar factories, offshore wind ports, and warehouses to store and transport clean energy products.
• 12% of all clean energy jobs were unionized, driven by rapid growth in union construction and utility industry careers, a higher rate than the overall energy industry.

And that’s just the start. Energy efficiency – counted separately from USEER’s “clean energy” jobs category – led all energy sectors by supporting nearly 2.3 million jobs in 2023, nearly 75,000 more than in 2022. That growth is projected to continue as over half of U.S. states plug into nearly $9 billion in federal Home Energy Rebates funded by the IRA for building upgrades that are expected to support more than 50,000 new jobs nationwide.

Federal policy has also put America’s auto industry back into the fast lane. USEER reports industry-wide jobs grew, driven by rapid growth in zero-emission vehicles with clean vehicle employment increasing 11.4% to add nearly 25,000 jobs.

As of June 2024, vehicle manufacturing jobs have reached a 34-year peak according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the strongest growth rate in a generation.

Historic Climate Policy Fuels A Clean Economic Boom

The IRA, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and CHIPS Act are historic actions that have positioned America to tap into clean energy’s economic potential and compete in a global race worth $1.8 trillion in 2023.

These federal policies are attracting hundreds of billions in investment that would have either gone to other countries or been left on the table – a down payment on a clean energy future where economic growth confronts climate change.

All Americans deserve the economic mobility and opportunity offered by good clean energy jobs, and our country deserves to see its economy grow from the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. 2023 modeling from Energy Innovation predicted the IRA’s clean energy provisions alone could increase U.S. GDP up to $200 billion and create up to 1.3 million jobs nationwide by 2030.

“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 Secretary Granholm.

The clean energy industry offers Americans a more promising future in a changing world. By investing in a clean energy future, the federal government is betting on our economic future.