U.S. energy sector employment rebounds after pandemic led by the oil and gas sector

Energize Weekly, July 19, 2023

Energy sector jobs in the U.S. rebounded from the pandemic by 2022, outpacing national job growth. While clean energy jobs grew fastest overall, the lion’s share of new jobs was in oil and gas, according to a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) report.

The energy sector added nearly 300,000 jobs, increasing to more than 8.1 million by the end of 2022 from 7.8 million a year earlier, representing an annual 3.8 percent growth rate compared to a 3.1 percent for the overall economy.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy sector had been one of the fastest-growing job markets in the nation, the DOE said.

From 2015 to 2019, the annual growth rate for energy employment in the U.S. was 3.0 percent – double the job growth in the U.S. economy. COVID-19 and its economic fallout severely impacted energy employment, with the sector losing jobs at a higher rate than the economy as a whole.

As of 2022, the energy sector had recovered 71 percent of the jobs lost in 2020, adding back 596,000 of the 840,000 jobs lost during the first year of the pandemic.

“The fuels sector saw the largest percent increase from 2021 to 2022, with the fastest growth seen in onshore natural gas. The second largest percent increase was in electric power generation jobs,” the report said.

Employment in the petroleum sector was up 12.5 percent with 58,100 jobs, and natural gas employment rose 24.1 percent with 51,100 jobs.

“In 2022, the conflict in Ukraine had a notable impact on fuels industries, resulting in increased U.S. exports of petroleum and wet gas,” the DOE said. “In addition, the number of active crude oil and natural gas rotary rigs increased by 35 percent between December 2021 and December 2022.”

When establishments engaged in the fuels value chain are included, the sector added 124,000 jobs, a 13.6 percent increase.

Still, clean energy jobs – those associated with reaching a net-zero greenhouse gas emission target by 2050 – grew at a slightly higher pace than the overall energy sector.

Clean energy technologies, such as wind and solar, accounted for almost 87 percent of net new electric power generation hires, adding 22,279 jobs.

Solar had the biggest jobs gain, adding 12,256 workers and land-based wind adding 5,238 workers.

In the auto industry, clean vehicles accounted for 59 percent of all net new jobs, with a total employment increase of 38,200 jobs, with three-quarters in battery-powered vehicles and a quarter in hybrid manufacturing.

“Energy efficiency was hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, resulting in across-the-board declines amounting to a loss of 271,719 jobs,” the DOE report said. “Since 2020, energy efficiency employers have added 163,461 workers, recovering 60.2 percent of the total lost during the pandemic.”

In 2021, there was a gain of 50,000 jobs in the energy efficiency sector, bringing total employment to 2.2 million, led by new hires by traditional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning contractors.

Energy jobs increased in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., with the largest growth in Texas, California, and Pennsylvania.

California added 13,116 jobs, a 3.6 percent increase, followed by Texas, where jobs increased 5.5 percent or by 5,198, and New York, which added 5,054, a 3 percent increase.