Renewables jobs grew faster than overall energy sector in 2023: Energy Department

Jobs in the renewable energy sector grew at twice the rate of overall U.S. jobs last year, the Energy Department said Wednesday in its annual U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER).

Employment in the clean energy sector grew by 142,000 jobs in 2023, according to DOE data, comprising the majority of the 250,000 jobs added in the energy sector overall.

On a call with reporters, Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said that every state and the District of Columbia added jobs in renewable energy, which the department defines as technologies contributing to a goal of net zero emissions. Translated to growth rate, clean energy jobs grew 4.2 percent compared to the 2 percent growth of the economy as a whole.

The department also found that 2023 was the first year on record that the renewable energy sector had a higher rate of union membership than the broader energy sector, at a rate of 12.4 percent versus 11 percent. Both figures outpaced the overall rate of 7 percent for private sector workers.

“Zooming out even further, clean energy jobs grew at more than double the rate of the rest of the US economy, and that growth was driven by the utilities and construction sectors in particular — think new jobs building renewable energy and upgrading our grid,” Turk said on the call.

Turk also said the data indicated that employers in the energy sector are less likely to report difficulty finding qualified workers, a trend that held for both the renewable sector and the energy sector at large.

The report comes as the Biden administration, as well as Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign, have sought to emphasize economic benefits from renewable energy rather than presenting decarbonization as requiring sacrifices by the public.

While Republicans have attacked the transition to renewables as a job-killer, several Republican members of the House, all of whom voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, asked Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to preserve its renewable energy tax credits.