There Are a Ton of New Jobs In Energy. Are You Qualified to Fill Them?
A new study forecasts that 100,000 opportunities are there for the taking, but companies are having difficulty finding talent.
By Kathryn Krawczyk •
This story originally appeared on Energy News Network
There's been a lot of talk about the federal Inflation Reduction Act and the jobs it will create in clean energy manufacturing and installation. But a big question remains: Who's going to fill them?
According to the environmental coalition Climate Power, the climate bill's passage last year has already sparked more than 100,000 new clean energy jobs for electricians, mechanics, construction workers, and others.
But with the U.S. already short hundreds of thousands of construction and manufacturing workers as of last year, companies will probably have a hard time hiring, Politico reports.
Related: A Job in This Industry Is Not Only In Demand in 2023 — Our Future Depends on It
Relief for fossil fuel workers
One possible hiring pool? The shrinking fossil fuel industry. Amid layoffs and cautious hiring at oil and gas companies, executives and workers say they've seen a steady movement of geologists, engineers, and other former fossil fuel workers to renewable energy jobs, the New York Times reports.
Consulting firm McKinsey has its doubts, though. It projects the U.S. will see 550,000 new energy transition jobs by 2030, but people leaving the fossil fuel industry will fill just 10% of them.
That means it may start taking even longer to construct an offshore wind farm or put solar panels on a roof — and there's no better time to consider a career change.
