DOE report examines employment trends in energy sector

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) held a roundtable this week to discuss the findings of a new report on employment trends in the energy sector.

The roundtable discussion was called Investing in America’s Energy Sector: An Opportunity to Recover and Build Back Better, which was based on the finding of the 2021 U.S. Energy Employment Report (USEER).

The report stated that before the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy sector had been one of the country’s fastest-growing job markets, with an annual growth rate of 3 percent from 2015-2019. In 2020, the sector and the entire economy took a hit due to the pandemic. Still, the USEER analysis shows that by the end of the year, the energy sector was already rebounding—adding back 560,000 jobs, about half of those lost. Overall, the analysis showed a total of 839,000 jobs lost in 2020, a 10 percent decline from 8.4 million in 2019 to 7.5 million jobs.

“Although we are still grappling with the economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country is turning a corner, and a strong energy workforce is critical to our full recovery,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “The U.S. Energy Employment Report provides us with the best available data into the energy sector, and we are proud to have DOE’s experts once again produce this crucial analysis. As the report shows, energy employment is on the rebound, and with the robust investments in President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, we are set to supercharge the energy job market.”

The parts of the industry that saw the biggest declines were electric power generation, which had a 9.8 percent decline; energy-efficiency jobs, which saw an 11.4 percent decline; and motor vehicles, which had a 9 percent decline.

However, there were job increases in the electric vehicle industry, up 8 percent; battery storage, up 1 percent; hybrid electric vehicles, up 6 percent; and wind generation, up 2 percent.

“Although the renewable energy sector was hard hit by the pandemic, it provides significant potential as an economic driver. Modernization of the grid and the installation of new PV and wind capacity will provide thousands of new, high-paying jobs in manufacturing, installation, and maintenance across the country,” Martin Shields, professor of economics at Colorado State University, said. “As renewables become a larger part of the generation portfolio, it can reduce electricity prices, helping residential, industrial and commercial consumers through lower utility bills.”

Looking at 2021, key investments in infrastructure and transportation should recoup 2020 job losses and return the sector to positive growth rates.