In a buildup to President Obama’s call to Congress in the State of the Union address to create clean energy jobs, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz welcomed the Solar Foundation’s National Solar Jobs Census 2013, which found that the U.S. solar industry employed 142,698 Americans as of November 2013. 

“This figure includes the addition of 23,682 solar workers over the previous year, representing 19.9 percent growth in employment since September 2012,” says the Solar Foundation.  “During the period covered by the Census, solar employment grew 10 times faster than the national average employment rate of 1.9 percent.”

“This is an exciting time for the solar industry in the United States, made even more clear by the latest industry job figures,” said Moniz.

Installation activity strongest

According to the Solar Foundation, the census is derived from a “statistically valid sampling and comprehensive survey of 15,437 employers throughout the nation, in industries ranging from manufacturing and construction to engineering and sales.”

Leading the group are industries in the installation sector, says the Solar Foundation, in which solar employment has grown by nearly 60 percent, or about 25,000 new jobs in the 4 years since the census was started. 

Moreover, growth has picked up speed, claims the Foundation, noting that the pace of hiring has quickened at a rate 50 percent higher than last year. 

What is a green job?

The conventional energy sector and its supporters often express skepticism about how renewable energy jobs are added to the economy.  For example, people who clean offices after hours at renewable energy plants are sometimes counted as green employees. 

But the Solar Foundation emphasizes the quality of the new jobs.  The census indicates that two-thirds of new solar hires are installers who earn an average of $23.63 an hour, and this number is expected to increase by nearly 21 percent next year, says the Foundation.

Indirect jobs

Moreover, the Foundation says the census indicates that the industry supports an additional 435,000 “indirect and induced” jobs in the components and material supply chain.

“These findings are based on rigorous study efforts that include 73,796 telephone calls and over 11,000 emails to potential solar establishments across the United States,” says the Foundation, “resulting in a maximum margin of error for employment related questions of +/- 1.3 percent.” 

The Foundation emphasizes that the census relies on data gathered from employers and therefore differs from economic models that generate green job figures based on such economic data as company revenue.

The census and related information