Strong Growth in Energy Sector Jobs Spurred by Green Vehicle Manufacturing

WASHINGTON — Employment in the U.S. energy sector rose 4% last year, led by an increase in workers at firms building electric and other low-emission vehicles, the U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday.

In a new report, the department said employment in the manufacturing of greener vehicles and their components, a category that takes in hybrid electric, full battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, rose by about 25% last year, accounting for about 64,500 additional jobs.

By comparison, the overall number of jobs in the motor vehicle sector rose only 9%, though it accounted for 228,100 jobs.

Jobs in solar energy rose about 17,500 or about 5.4%, while wind power jobs rose about 3,350, or 2.9%, the report said.

At the same time, employment in the oil and gas industry fell 6.4% – or about by 31,600 jobs – mostly due to a slackening of demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Overall, the energy sector added more than 300,000 jobs, increasing the total number of energy jobs from 7.5 million in 2020 to more than 7.8 million in 2021, the report said.

In a call with reporters, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the report is “good news to build on.”

At the same time, however, she said it’s critical that Congress act to pass additional climate-related legislation to maintain this momentum.

“We’re going to need more clean energy tax credits from Congress if we’re going to turbo-charge this progress and create millions more good paying, high quality jobs,” Granholm said.

In terms of demographics, the report’s authors found that the energy workforce is about 74% male, making it less gender diverse than the U.S. workforce average, which is 53% male. 

Women make up about 25% of the energy workforce, the report said, much less than the U.S. average, which is 47%. 

In addition, there is a higher percentage of non-White workers in energy, 26% compared to 22% of the entire U.S. workforce. However, the energy workforce has a lower-than-average percentage of Black and Latino workers. There are no technologies where Black workers are represented proportionally to their overall representation in the U.S. workforce.

Workers of two or more races are more represented in nearly every energy technology, composing 8% of the energy workforce, compared to 2% across all U.S. industries. Economy-wide research, however, shows that respondents may answer inconsistently to questions about two or more races.

Finally, the report said, the energy workforce is younger than average. Only 17% of the energy workforce is older than 55, which is lower than the national employment average of 24%.

Asked about the downturn in oil and gas sector hiring, the secretary said she expects those numbers will rebound as companies in the sector produce more to meet demand and sanctions imposed after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine limits the amount of Russian oil and gas on the market.

“We want to see an increase in supply,” Granholm said of oil and gas. 

“But ultimately, most project that there will be a demand curve that comes down and that this transition [to cleaner, renewable sources of energy] will happen,” she said.

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