October 8, 2020 — The entire U.S. clean energy sector added only 12,500 jobs in September, according to a new analysis by BW Research Partnership. Unemployment data show job growth of less than a half percent for each clean energy sub-sector.
September’s 0.4% gain of 8,400 jobs for energy efficiency represents the most workers added. Renewable power generation saw 2,300 jobs added, along with 1,000 for clean vehicles and 400 for fuels; transmission, distribution and storage added just 500. Statistics for all 50 states are detailed in the memo from BW Research.
“It’s a painful reality that energy efficiency jobs are still down by 336,700 compared with January 2020 numbers,” said E4TheFuture’s policy director Pat Stanton. “If this had been a normal year, the efficiency sector would have added about 30,000 jobs during this timeframe.”
Although the nation’s overall recovery has stalled, “the clean energy sector has been particularly slow to rebound,” said Philip Jordan, Vice-President, BW Research Partnership in the memo. Nearly half a million clean energy workers remain unemployed (477,900). The figure represents an almost 14% decline this year for a previously robust and fast-growing energy workforce. Clean energy jobs had been growing 70% faster than the overall U.S. economy 2015-2019.