Advanced Energy Gains 125,000 Jobs in 2018, Growing Twice as Fast as U.S. Employment Overall

With 3.5 million jobs, advanced energy industry employs more U.S. workers than retail stores, twice as many as hotels and motels, three times coal and oil industries

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 20, 2019 – Today national business group Advanced Energy Economy released a fact sheet showing that the advanced energy industry employed 3.5 million U.S. workers in 2018, an increase of 125,000 jobs over 2017. Advanced energy employment grew 4 percent year-over-year, more than twice as fast as the overall U.S. employment growth rate of 1.5 percent. Employers expect to add 6 percent more advanced energy jobs in the coming year.

The AEE 2019 Advanced Energy Jobs fact sheet can be downloaded here.

These are some of the findings derived from the2019 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) in partnership with the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), using data collected and analyzed by BW Research Partnership. The report is available at www.usenergyjobs.org.

At 3.5 million jobs, advanced energy employs more U.S. workers than retail stores (3 million), twice as many as hotels and motels (1.7 million), and more than three times as many as the coal and oil industries combined (1 million), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (retail and hotel/motel) and USEER (coal and oil). 

“Advanced energy is a significant growth industry,” said Nat Kreamer, CEO of AEE. “From energy efficiency to electric vehicles, the technologies and services that constitute advanced energy are creating jobs and helping the U.S. economy expand. At AEE, we are working to promote state and federal policies that remove barriers and expand markets. As long as advanced energy products are allowed to compete on performance and price, we can keep this economic driver going.”

Additional findings on advanced energy employment:

• The greatest number of advanced energy jobs – 2.3 million – are found in energy efficiency, making buildings and appliances use less energy. Energy efficiency jobs grew 3 percent year-over-year.
  
  
• The fastest employment growth was in advanced vehicles, at 15 percent. Of the 253,000 total jobs, 120,900 are associated with plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles, which grew 25 percent, and 110,300 with hybrid vehicles, which grew 10 percent.
  
  
• Employment in energy storage increased 14 percent, to 74,500.
  
  
• Employment in advanced energy generation – which includes solar, wind, hydro, high-efficiency (combined cycle) natural gas, and nuclear power – totals 695,000 jobs, down 1 percent from 2017. Solar jobs are down 4 percent; wind jobs up 4 percent; advanced (combined cycle) natural gas jobs up 7 percent.
  
  
• Jobs in advanced fuels – which include corn ethanol, biofuels, biomass, and nuclear fuel – increased 11 percent year-over-year, totaling 116,000.

About Advanced Energy Economy
Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) is a national association of businesses that are making the energy we use secure, clean, and affordable. Advanced energy encompasses a broad range of products and services that constitute the best available technologies for meeting energy needs today and tomorrow. AEE’s mission is to transform public policy to enable rapid growth of advanced energy businesses. Engaged at the federal level and in more than a dozen states around the country, AEE represents more than 100 companies in the $200 billion U.S. advanced energy industry, which employs 3.5 million U.S. workers. Learn more at www.aee.net and follow the latest industry news @AEEnet.