The growth rate of energy-related construction employment last year outpaced and nearly doubled the overall growth rate of construction employment, the US Department of Energy found in its latest report of US Energy and Employment. Construction was also one of the main sources of growth in this sector, second only to utilities, according to the update published on 28 August.
According to DOE, more than half of the 250,000 new jobs created in the energy sector last year were linked to climate, clean energy and clean energy manufacturing. Construction jobs in the global economy grew 2.3%, outpacing overall employment growth of 2.1%, but within the energy sector, construction added nearly 90,000 jobs. work, 4.5% more.
DOE produces the US Energy and Employment Report annually using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a supplemental survey of energy sector employers.
About half of these new energy building jobs were related to energy efficiency, which the DOE counts as those related to products that increase efficiency and those related to improving building performance . More than 34,000 new jobs were in the construction of transmission, distribution and storage projects, and smaller amounts related to the generation of electric power and fuels.
Betony Jones, director of the DOE’s Office of Energy Employment, attributed the growth to legislation in recent years, such as the Inflationary Jobs and Investments Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, that allocated money to clean energy. “This is an engine that drives job growth across the country,” he told reporters.
Unionization in clean energy reached 12.4%, surpassing the 11% rate for the global energy sector, according to the report. Employers seeking full Inflation Reduction Act tax credits must pay prevailing wages and take a certain percentage of work hours from apprenticeship programs. Working with unions can provide help for projects that need to “scale up quickly and ensure a steady flow of well-trained workers” during labor shortages, DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk told reporters.
In addition to direct-to-energy construction jobs, DOE also tracked construction jobs for clean energy manufacturing projects and supply chain facilities for the first time. The report identified an additional 28,000 new construction jobs involved in building battery or solar module plants, offshore wind ports and warehouses that store clean energy products.
For “clean energy,” the DOE counts everything related to technology that enables a transition to net zero emissions, including renewables, nuclear, non-fossil storage, non-fossil transmission and distribution, non-fossil energy efficiency, biofuels, and vehicles that do not. they require fossil fuels.
All figures in the report reflect last year’s growth.
This year’s numbers may differ as several factors have caused some project owners to scale back or delay work, including electric vehicle maker Rivian pausing to build a $5 billion plant in Georgia, Ford delaying completion of its second electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky and Stellantis halted construction of part of its $37 billion EV battery plant with LG Energy Solution in Ontario, Canada.
Changing market conditions have posed challenges for offshore wind developers, with Orsted canceling two projects off the coast of New Jersey last year. Legal challenges have also stymied some offshore work, as well as interstate transmission line projects, such as the $7 billion Grain Belt Express, which had its Illinois portion of approval overturned this month by a state appeals court.
But Jones said construction spurred by the funding laws is expected to continue for decades. Electricity demand is increasing from large users such as data centers, and DOE projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act alone to double the share of power generation from clean sources by 2030 with a growth in both solar and wind power, he stated.
“We went through a long period in the United States where demand for electricity was essentially flat,” said White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi. “Now we are touching a growing trajectory in the demand for energy. We will add more capacity to the network this year than we have in almost two decades.”
