Energy jobs

Power line installers, in demand everywhere, earn around $72,000 a year, higher than some others in the energy sector, according to Emsi.

An electrician who spent 20 years working on transmission lines for coal-fired power plants will be in highdemand when building infrastructure for renewable energy projects, and those tend to be union jobs, said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2, a nonpartisan group that advocates for policies that serve the economy and the environment.

ARE OLD JOBS DISAPPEARING FASTER THAN NEW ONES

ARE APPEARING? >> It’s hard to say. The oil, gas and chemical industries lost 107,000 jobs from March to August last year, according to a Deloitte study. That occurred after the pandemic crushed demand for jet fuel and gasoline. Coal mining jobs have been declining for years, to 52,804 in 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Biden wants to spend $16 billion to put hundreds of thousands of those people back to work capping unplugged oil wells and mines. But any such spending would need congressional approval.

Offshore wind projects in the United States generated about 7,500 jobs in 2020. And projects developed off U.S. coasts are expected to produce 85,000 jobs over the next decade, though those jobs aren’t necessarily filled within the United States, according to Rystad Energy, a consulting firm.

Meanwhile, demand grew for solar sales representatives by 70%, based on the number of job postings, and for solar installers by 56% from 2019 through 2020, according to Burning Glass. It’s unclear, though, whether the number of workers employed in such jobs increased or declined because the pandemic delayed many solar installation projects.