According to the report, job growth in the clean energy sector in the US is twice as high as the total number of jobs

The number of jobs in the U.S. clean energy industry will grow more than twice as fast as the total number of jobs in the country in 2023, and unionization in the clean energy sector has exceeded the rate in the entire energy industry for the first time, the Energy Department said Wednesday.

Employment at companies that produce clean energy — including wind, solar, nuclear and battery storage — rose by 142,000 jobs, or 4.2%, last year, following a 3.9% increase in 2022, the U.S. Energy and Employment Report said. The rate was above the overall U.S. job growth rate of 2% in 2023.

Unionization in the clean energy sector reached 12.4%, higher than the 11% in the overall energy business, it said. This was due to growth in the construction and utility industries as well as the passage of legislation in 2022, including the bipartisan CHIPS Act and President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, the department said.

Clean energy job creation, spurred by the legislation and private investment, “is expected to continue for decades to build the clean energy infrastructure that we need,” Betony Jones, energy workforce director at the Department of Energy, told reporters in a phone call. Union members “do move from project to project, but there is continuity in that work so workers can have careers in this industry,” she said.

Employment in the utility-scale and rooftop solar industry rose 5.3 percent, adding more than 18,000 jobs, it said. The solar installation industry in California, the most populous state in the U.S., said it lost more than 17,000 jobs due to high interest rates and the reduction in net meter rates, which allow customers to take credit for the excess electricity their rooftop solar systems generate.

The number of new jobs in the fossil fuel sector was mixed. Jobs in the natural gas sector grew by more than 77,000, or 13.3%, while jobs in the petroleum sector fell by more than 44,000, or 6%. In the coal sector, jobs fell by nearly 8,500, or 5.3%, as power generation continued to shift from coal to gas, wind and solar. White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters the report shows the administration's commitment to pursuing both energy and climate security.

The energy sector remained a predominantly male workforce in 2023, with an average of 73% men, compared to the national average of 53% men, the same figures as the previous year. Women accounted for about half of the new jobs created in the energy sector in 2022, but only 17% of the new jobs created in 2023, the report said.