U.S. is seeing a boom in clean energy jobs

Going green isn't only good for the planet — it can also put some green in your pocket.

The U.S. added 142,000 clean energy jobs last year, with employment in the emerging sector growing more than twice as fast as the rest of the energy industry and the economy overall, the Department of Energy said Wednesday in an annual report. Of the more than 250,000 jobs added in the energy sector last year, 56% involved clean energy, the agency found. 

"The data clearly show that clean energy means jobs — good jobs, union jobs and jobs retained — in communities across the country as we race to dominate the global clean energy economy," U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.

The sectors seeing significant job growth include zero-emission vehicles and renewable energy, as well as transmission and storage — growth the Biden administration views as essential for meeting its goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.

In addition to 90,000 traditional energy construction jobs, the agency found 28,000 more in 2023 involved building new battery and solar module factories, ports for offshore wind, and warehouses to store and transport clean energy products.

President Biden in November announced a federal jobs training program — dubbed the American Climate Corps — to employ more than 20,000 young adults to build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels and perform other work to boost conservation while helping prevent catastrophic wildfires. 

Local officials are also increasingly looking to stoke hiring in clean energy. For example, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker last month announced a $30 million investment to build a clean energy workforce on Chicago's historically impoverished South and West sides, with the goal of creating more than 1,000 jobs in solar energy over the next three years. In Brooklyn, New York, workshops train electricians for projects dealing with climate resiliency and sustainability.

Globally, job postings requiring at least one green skill jumped more than 22% in 2023 from the previous year, while the share of workers who had clean energy experience rose by just 12.3%, according to findings published by LinkedIn.