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Clean Jobs Midwest 2022

A Return to Rapid Growth, with Clean Vehicle Jobs Driving Ahead

Clean energy companies employed more than 714,000 Midwesterners at the end of 2021, over a 5 percent increase from 2020 and a return to growth after an unprecedented decline in 2020. Approximately 55 percent of the clean energy jobs lost during the COVID-19 economic downturn were regained. In 2021, clean energy jobs grew almost 40 percent faster than the overall economy. More Midwesterners worked in clean energy than the number of lawyers, accountants and auditors, web developers, and real estate agents in the region combined.

The biggest sector of the Midwest clean energy industry is energy efficiency, over 67 percent of the region’s clean energy workforce. The 479,626 energy efficiency workers in the Midwest manufacture ENERGY STAR-rated appliances, install efficient lighting, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and install advanced building materials in homes and commercial buildings.

As more automakers and their suppliers continued to shift to electric vehicles, the advanced transportation sector saw an increase of 24 percent in the Midwest.

The sector added 21,939 new jobs for a total of 112,591 workers. Hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric-vehicle sector jo

MIDWEST HIGHLIGHTS

• Energy Efficiency – 479,626 jobs
• Clean Vehicles – 112,591 jobs
• Renewable Energy – 88,898 jobs
• Grid & Storage – 25,279 jobs
• Clean Fuels – 7,928 jobs
• ALL Clean Energy Sectors – 714,323 jobs

OTHER KEY FINDINGS

• Clean energy occupations accounted for 23% of all construction jobs and 4% of all
  manufacturing jobs in the Midwest.
• Small businesses drive Midwest’s clean energy sector – in 2021, 69% of Midwest’s clean
  energy businesses employed fewer than 20 people.
• 11% of Midwesterners employed in clean energy are veterans

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The complete report along with interactive breakdowns for all states is available at this link.

PREVIOUS CLEAN JOBS MIDWEST REPORTS

• Clean Jobs Midwest 2021
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2020
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2019
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2018
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2017
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2016

Clean Jobs Midwest 2021

After Rough Year, Clean Energy Jobs on the Upswing in the Midwest

More than 677,900 Midwesterners worked in clean energy and clean vehicles at the end of 2020, making the sector a major – and promising – part of the region’s economy, according to this comprehensive analysis of employment data.

Like most of the economy, clean energy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn in 2020. According to this year’s Clean Jobs Midwest, 2020 was the first year-to-year decline since E2 and Clean Energy Trust began tracking Midwest clean energy jobs. At one point, more than 131,600 Midwest clean energy workers had filed for unemployment, but the sector surged back 10.7 percent in the second half of the year to recover more than half of the jobs initially lost. The final 2020 job numbers represent an 8.9 percent drop in the Midwest clean energy workforce from 2019, or 66,100 jobs. Last year’s job losses were a dramatic change of pace for the industry. Last year’s job losses were a dramatic change of pace for the industry. In the 3 years leading up to 2020, for example, clean energy jobs grew almost 4 times as fast as overall employment.

MIDWEST HIGHLIGHTS

• Energy Efficiency – 470,651 jobs
• Clean Vehicles – 90,652 jobs
• Renewable Energy – 84,881  jobs
• Grid & Storage – 24,209 jobs
• Clean Fuels – 7,525 jobs
• ALL Clean Energy Sectors – 677,918 jobs

OTHER KEY FINDINGS

The biggest sector of the Midwest’s clean energy industry is energy efficiency, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the region’s clean energy jobs. But as more automakers and their suppliers continue to shift to electric vehicles, the advanced transportation sector saw a job increase of 3 percent across the region, with growth in most states. The sector added nearly 3,000 new jobs for a total of more than 90,000 workers.

Among clean energy subsectors, wind power, hybrid cars, and electric vehicles were the region’s brightest spots. Wind energy jobs in the region grew by more than 4 percent to 37,800 workers and the number of hybrid vehicle manufacturing employees grew by 6 percent to 43,000 workers. Electric vehicle (EV) jobs grew by an even healthier 8.5 percent, and are poised for future growth with supportive policies and significant commitments to EVs by major regional employers such as Ford and GM.

Clean energy jobs are found in every corner of the region. While big cities like Chicago (81,707), Detroit (50,229), and Minneapolis (34,958) were some of the largest hubs for clean energy jobs, more than one in five — or more than 143,800 — jobs are in rural areas.

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The complete report along with interactive breakdowns for all states is available at this link.

Solar power, federal infrastructure funding and Colorado’s renewable-energy future

Colorado’s clean energy industry employed 58,182 at the end of 2020, according to a survey by E2, or Environmental Entrepreneurs, a national industry group. Employment dropped nearly 7% during the pandemic, but rebounded 6% from June to December last year.

E2 Supports North Carolina Joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

As North Carolina considers joining the multi-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to help achieve the power sector climate pollution reductions called for by Governor Roy Cooper in his Executive Order 80, 39 North Carolina executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and other business professionals signed onto this E2 letter in support of North Carolina joining the program.

Biden American Jobs Plan: What U.S. Economy, Environment Needs

E2: Administration takes a “whole of economy” approach to climate action WASHINGTON (March 31, 2021) – President Biden will outline his plan for rebuilding America’s infrastructure in a speech later today in Pittsburgh. Biden’s American Jobs Plan will focus on how smart investments in priorities such as ensuring safe drinking water, modernizing the energy grid, […]

Achieving California’s Clean Energy Targets: Where The Rubber Meets The Road

WHAT Profound change is afoot in the quest to meet California’s ambitious decarbonization targets and our state’s electric grid is a critical lynchpin; delivering zero-carbon electricity to California citizens and businesses is critical as we work to power our industries, buildings, and transportation sector with clean electricity.  Realizing 100% clean energy and statewide carbon neutrality […]

Wind, solar jobs pay more than average, study finds

Wages for renewable and other low-carbon energy jobs also are inching above the wages paid for some traditional energy jobs in the coal, natural gas and petroleum-based fuels industries.  The study found that those fossil fuel jobs paid an average of $24.37 an hour last year compared with wind and solar jobs that pay $24.85 […]

E2: Gov. Newsom Clean Cars Announcement Will Help Environment and Economy

SACRAMENTO  – Today, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an executive order requiring all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035, setting the path for more electric and other cleaner vehicles in California. Following is a statement from Bob Keefe, executive director of the national nonpartisan business group E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs): “This is good news for […]

PASSED: AB841 Puts Thousands of Unemployed Clean Energy Employees Back to Work

Newly passed bill is type of policy California “needs to help its economic recovery” SACRAMENTO (September 1, 2020) – Late Monday night, the California legislature passed AB 841, a bill that swill streamline millions in investments to expand California’s electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and make improvements to school energy efficiency upgrades. Following is a […]

House Infrastructure Bill Meets the “Severity of the Challenges” U.S. Faces; Clean Energy Stimulus Needed Next

Statement from Director of Federal Advocacy, Sandra Purohit WASHINGTON (July 1, 2020) – The House of Representatives today passed the “Moving Forward Act” (H.R. 2), a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that prioritizes clean energy to combat the looming threat of climate change and accelerates America’s economic recovery. The bill includes investments in clean energy, clean […]

Time is Now to Embrace Clean Energy, House Dems Climate Action Plan

WASHINGTON – The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis called on the need for investments in the clean energy economy, making it a focal point of the Committee’s Climate Crisis Action Plan released today. If enacted, the Plan would achieve net zero carbon emissions in the U.S. by 2050. Addressing climate change by unlocking […]

Clean Jobs Midwest 2020

Home to 744,000 Clean Energy Jobs

Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, clean energy companies employed more than 744,000 Midwesterners and clean energy jobs were growing in nearly every state, according to the latest available data. Across the region in 2019, the industry added more than 7,500 new jobs. At the end of 2019, more people in the Midwest worked in clean energy than the combined workforce of real estate agents and brokers, computer programmers, web developers, and waiters and waitresses. However, according to a recent analysis of U.S. Department of Labor unemployment data, in just the first three months after the pandemic began more than 131,600 workers in clean energy-related companies lost their jobs.

MIDWEST HIGHLIGHTS

• Energy Efficiency – 534,567 jobs
• Renewable Energy – 87,307 jobs
• Grid & Storage – 26,251 jobs
• Clean Vehicles – 87,993 jobs
• Clean Fuels – 7,923 jobs
• ALL Clean Energy Sectors – 744,041 jobs

OTHER KEY FINDINGS

The Midwest’s largest clean energy employer was energy efficiency. The sector has been home to more than 70 percent of all the region’s clean energy jobs. Last year, the Midwest also saw job growth rate increases in clean fuels (2.9 percent), grid and storage (3.4 percent), and renewable energy generation (2.7 percent).

Clean energy jobs are found in every corner of the region. While big cities like Chicago (88,930 jobs), Detroit (55,470 jobs), and Minneapolis (38,920 jobs) were some of the largest hubs for clean energy jobs, more than one in five — or more than 158,000 — were at the end of 2019 located in rural areas.

Thousands of Midwestern companies hire clean energy workers every year. Before the crisis hit, these employers anticipated adding nearly 37,000 clean energy jobs in 2020 — a nearly 5 percent growth rate.

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The complete report along with interactive breakdowns for all states is available at this link.

LOOKING FOR MORE INFO?

This report follows E2’s Clean Jobs America analysis which found the clean energy jobs account for nearly 3.3 million jobs across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Both reports expand on data from the 2020 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 the BW Research Partnership. E2 is a partner on the USEER, the fifth installment of the energy survey first released by the Department of Energy in 2016. Clean energy jobs have grown every year since the first report was released in 2016.

If you are looking for additional insight into E2’s Clean Jobs Midwest or our other Clean Jobs America reports, visit e2.org/reports. You can also contact E2 Communications Director Michael Timberlake ([email protected]). An FAQ is also available here to answer any questions.