Since 2015, E2 has published the Clean Jobs America report. The nonpartisan group of more than 10,000 members and supporters nationwide includes business leaders, investors, and other professionals who are engaged in sectors that are important for a good economy and healthy climate and who push for policies that are as well.
On Sept. 17, E2 announced the release of its ninth annual report, Clean Jobs America 2024. The advocacy organization’s analysis of growth in clean energy jobs is based on data from BW Research Partnership used for the United States Department of Energy’s U.S. Energy Employment Report (USEER). E2’s report analyzes workers that have jobs primarily in industries, including:
- Renewable generation jobs, such as solar energy, wind energy, combined heat and power, bioenergy, low-impact hydroelectric and hydrokinetic energy, and geothermal energy;
- Energy efficiency jobs, such as ENERGY STAR appliances, efficient lighting, traditional and high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems (HVAC), renewable heating and cooling, and advanced building materials/insulation;
- Clean vehicle jobs, such as plug-in hybrid vehicles, all-electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, natural gas vehicles, and hydrogen and fuel-cell vehicles;
- Storage and grid jobs, such as clean energy and battery storage technologies, microgrids, smart grids, and grid modernization; and
- Biofuels jobs, including biofuels and biomass — but not corn ethanol and woody biomass.
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Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022, announcements have been made for more than 340 new clean energy projects in 40 states and Puerto Rico. E2’s findings show that in 2023, the first year the IRA’s full impact could be felt, clean energy and vehicle companies created 149,170 jobs. This number equates to 6.4% of the total 2,322,828 jobs created in the country last year — or approximately one out of every 16 new jobs — and 58.6% of the new 254,411 jobs created in the energy sector in 2023.
According to E2, more new clean energy jobs were created last year than nurses employed around the country. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry only created 24,685 jobs last year.
These new jobs represent a growth in clean energy employment of 14% over three years and 4.5% year-over-year. This growth was three times faster than the economy-wide employment year-over-year.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), total U.S. employment only grew by 1.5% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the total U.S. energy employment only grew by 3.1% year-over-year. In fact, clean energy employment has grown faster than employment in the entire economy for the past five years. The fossil fuel sector, meanwhile, only grew by 1.6% year-over-year.
These new additions brought the total number of Americans working in clean energy jobs up to 3,460,406 at the beginning of 2024, compared to 3,311,236 at the beginning of 2023. Clean energy employment is now 2.2% of all jobs in the economy, and 41.4% of all jobs in the energy and motor vehicles sector are now clean.
In other words, more than four out of every 10 employees in the energy industry work in clean energy. In contrast, there were 1,523,618 jobs in fossil fuels at the beginning of this year and 1,498,933 at the beginning of last year.
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The energy efficiency sector was responsible for 50.1% of the newly added clean energy jobs in 2023, with 74,747 new workers, representing a three-year growth of 8.7% and year-over-year growth of 3.4%. At the beginning of this year, the industry employed 2,290,179 Americans, compared to 2,215,432 at the beginning of 2023. It is the biggest employer in the entire energy sector.
Renewable generation added 25,368 new jobs last year, with solar contributing the most at 18,401 new jobs. Renewable generation experienced growth of 13.6% over three years and 4.7% year-over-year. It accounted for 559,971 jobs in total at the top of 2024, compared to 534,603 at the top of 2023.
Last year, the clean vehicles sector created 40,779 jobs, with electric vehicles (EVs) adding the most at 17,064 jobs, trailed closely by hybrid EVs, which added 15,953.
The clean vehicles sector stands out for its outstanding growth of 57.1% over the past three years and 11% year-over-year. It is the third consecutive year in which the industry has witnessed growth at rates in the double digits.
On the other hand, employment in the gas and diesel-powered sectors only grew by 2% year-over-year. The clean vehicle industry counted 410,420 workers at the beginning of this year, compared to 369,641 at the beginning of last year.
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In turning to larger industries, the most jobs were added in 2023 in manufacturing and other services, such as vehicle repair and maintenance. Together, they accounted for 86,373 new jobs, or 57.9% of jobs added; 42,576 were specifically in manufacturing.
At the top of 2024, the construction industry led in total clean energy jobs, with 1,605,949, or 46.4% of total clean energy employment. It was trailed by professional services with 740,601 and manufacturing with 534,045 total clean energy jobs, amounting to 21.4% and 15.4% of total clean energy employment, respectively.
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The top 10 states for clean energy jobs remained the same at the beginning of 2024 as they had been at the beginning of 2023:
- California remains in the lead with 544,604 jobs
- Texas followed with 268,035
- Florida, with 175,572
- New York, with 173,731
- Illinois, with 128,871
- Michigan, with 127,690
- Massachusetts, with 123,403
- Ohio, with 119,241
- North Carolina, with 109,723
- Pennsylvania, with 100,704
However, each state in the top 10 supported more than 100,000 clean energy jobs for the first time. Plus, the states with the fewest new clean energy jobs saw additions: even Alaska attracted 5,304 new positions in 2023.
However, the South added the most clean energy jobs in 2023, with more than 54,000, or approximately 36% of all jobs created that year.
The Midwest, Northeast, and West combined added 95,000 jobs. At the beginning of 2024, the South supported the most jobs in the clean energy and clean vehicle industries out of any region. It also became the first region to support more than 1 million such jobs.
The growth rates cannot be understated. More than half of the top 10 fastest-growing states for clean energy jobs saw growth rates of more than 6%: Alabama with 6.6%, Kentucky and Texas with 6.5%, and Oklahoma, West Virginia, and New Mexico with 6.1%.
Again, the South stands out when looking at this metric. Half of the states in the top 10 were in the region: Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, West Virginia, and Florida. Plus, even the states with the lowest growth saw rates higher than 1%: Vermont saw clean energy jobs grow by 1.7%, and Indiana saw them grow by 1.8%.
However, different states are leading in growth rates for different sectors:
- New Mexico was the fastest-growing in energy efficiency overall, with a growth rate of 7%
- Oklahoma led in ENERGY STAR and efficient lighting at 15.4%
- Hawaii in traditional HVAC at 14.5%
- Michigan in high-efficiency HVAC and renewable heating and cooling at 9.6%
- Arkansas in advanced materials at 11.3%
- West Virginia in other categories at 14.7%
While Montana was the fastest-growing in renewable generation overall, with a growth rate of 22.6%, Arkansas led in solar at 28.5%, Nevada in wind at 35.1%, and Washington in geothermal at 8.8%.
Wyoming led in bioenergy and combined heat and power at 12.5% and low-impact hydropower and hydrokinetic energy at 13.9%.
Photo Courtesy NextEra Energy
Accordingly, more states are seeing clean energy positions take up higher percentages of their total energy industry employment. At the beginning of 2024, 17 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) saw clean energy employees account for more than 50% of the jobs in the energy industry. They were led by:
- D.C., with 80.2%
- Vermont, with 72.8%
- Massachusetts, with 70.5%
- Maryland, with 65.0%
- Rhode Island, with 64.7%
- Delaware, with 61.2%
- Connecticut, with 59.2%
- Oregon, with 59.2%
- California, with 58.4%
- Nevada, with 56.1%
“Thanks to the game-changing policies and incentives created by the IRA, clean energy companies are leading an American economic revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen in generations,” Bob Keefe, executive director of E2, expressed in the press release.
Photo Courtesy E2