New DOE Jobs Report Shows Promising Outlook for Energy Efficiency

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The United States Department of Energy (DOE) recently released the Annual United States Energy and Employment Report (USEER) and the numbers look good for energy efficiency. The USEER study focused on four segments of the energy market—Electric Power Generation and Fuels; Transmission, Distribution and Storage; Energy Efficiency; and Motor Vehicles—to determine current growth and potential for jobs in the energy sector.

The report highlights that energy efficiency is a rapidly growing segment in the energy sector with an annually increasing market share. Though the majority of jobs in energy efficiency are in construction, there is growth potential in energy-related manufacturing in the coming years.

Current EE Employment

In total, the report found 1.9 million American workers engaged either partially or fully in the energy efficiency market. Of the 1.9 million energy efficiency jobs in the country, almost 1.2 million are in the construction industry. Energy-related manufacturing jobs account for just 34,571 of the 1.9 million total.

Future Growth

Firms specializing in energy efficiency are expected to add 257,000 jobs to the market in 2016-2017 for an overall projected growth of 14%. For employers across all four analyzed segments, nearly three-quarters of them reported difficulty hiring qualified workers in the last twelve months. The current shortage of skilled labor in the energy efficiency market, along with the industry growth potential, makes this an ideal prospect for recent graduates.