With all the attention on coal employment, you might think that coal has the biggest share of energy jobs, right?
Not by a long shot. According to the recently published 2019 United States Energy Employment Report (USEER 2019), coal provides one of the lowest number of energy jobs in the power industry. When it comes to grid-related energy jobs, solar is the clear winner, providing more employment than coal, natural gas, and oil put together. Here’s the breakdown:
- Solar jobs: 242,343
- Natural gas jobs: 112,685
- Coal jobs: 86,202
- All fossil fuel jobs together: 211,469
Fun fact: if you include part-time solar workers, USEER says there were another 92,649 people working in the solar industry, bringing the total solar energy jobs to 334,992 in 2018!
Despite the incredible growth in solar globally, the number of US solar jobs actually fell 17,700, or 14.7% since 2017. While it’s tough to know for sure, it’s a good bet that one of the largest reasons is the 30% tariffs the Trump administration added to all incoming solar products in early 2017.
Future outlook on solar and other energy jobs
The immediate outlook for solar jobs remains cloudy – they could go up or continue their recent decline. Most of this depends on the outcome of the many tariff disputes between the US and China. One particularly bright spot, however, is the Trump administration’s recent exemption for bifacial solar modules. This technology doesn’t work as well on residential rooftops but it’s a game-changer for commercial and utility scale installations. By itself, it could put the growth of solar jobs back on the fast track.
Additional reading
- The Solar Foundation is the gold standard for solar jobs. Check out their latest report.
- From Freeing Energy, The inevitability of a solar powered future
- From Freeing Energy, The Trump administration slaps a 30% tariff on all imported solar
One Response
I don’t think that’s a good thing. Solar needs to grow 50x more if it’s going to replace fossil fuels. We have to make it less labor-intensive if we want it to scale up.