DOE Report Citing 4.2 Percent Clean Energy Job Growth Draws Praise, Skepticism

The annual survey of utilities and 42,000 businesses found that grid expansion and construction are fueling employment in solar, wind, and similar technologies.

Construction workers install actuators for tilting panels at a solar energy site that is being developed in Bowling Green, Fla., on March 24, 2021. Dane Rhys/Reuters

“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, according to a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) report released on Aug. 28.

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 56 percent of those new jobs in clean energy—primarily solar, wind, and construction of related infrastructure.