According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on August 28, “clean energy” development accounted for 6 percent of all new employment in the United States in 2023, adding 142,000 jobs to the nation’s collective payroll. The DOE’s 227-page 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER) states that the nation’s overall energy workforce grew by more than 250,000 jobs, or 2 percent, in 2023, with clean energy jobs making up 56 percent of those new positions.
The report defines clean energy as primarily solar and wind power and construction related to these industries. It also highlights a significant increase of 4.2 percent in clean energy jobs compared to previous years.
DOE Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm expressed her satisfaction with these findings and attributed them to successful policies implemented by the government: “Our policies are working,” she said in a statement announcing the USEER’s release. Granholm believes that as America continues to invest in infrastructure and build more factories related to clean energy production, hundreds of thousands more jobs will be created.
However, some experts have raised concerns about how these clean energy job growth numbers are achieved. Tom Pyle, President of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), pointed out that much of this growth is supported by taxpayer subsidies and loan guarantees provided through government programs like the Inflation Reduction Act.
Pyle also expressed skepticism about job growth announcements from the federal government after recent downward adjustments made by the U.S. Department of Labor regarding employment numbers for previous years.
Despite these concerns, DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk emphasized that overall job growth in the energy sector was driven by utilities and construction sectors involved in renewable energy projects and grid upgrades.
The USEER report reveals that all five categories within its scope experienced employment increases across all states: electric power generation; energy efficiency; fuels; motor vehicles; transmission, distribution, and storage.
The fastest-growing area was found to be utilities which saw a significant increase of five percent resulting in an additional 28 thousand jobs being created compared to previous years.
The DOE credits private sector investments fostered by President Biden’s Investing In America program for this positive trend within utilities’ sector growth rates.