Over 100,000 Clean Energy Jobs At Risk

By Douglas McIntyre  •  September 19, 2025
Yury Kim Pexels

As clean energy suffers a downturn, particularly in offshore wind and residential solar, over 100,000 jobs are at risk. That number could grow. If there is a sharp rise in unemployment, these industries could be significant contributors.

E2 reports that there were 3.6 million people working in clean energy across 47 clean energy subsections. The number is up 520,000 in the last five years. That outpaces the job growth across the broader economy. It was also faster than the job growth in the fossil fuel industries.

Job growth in the industry was up 50,000 last year, compared to 2023. However, the growth rate has been slowing. The researchers said that the situation could worsen. After reviewing new Trump legislation, Bob Keefe, E2’s executive director, said, “Now, clean energy job growth is at serious risk – and with it, our overall economy.”

The Overall Economy

When broken into segments, at least one part of the green energy market could grow. These are storage/grid jobs. As demand for electricity rises, the demand for these workers should grow. There are 168,000 jobs in that part of the market now.

The risk primarily affects the people who work in the renewable energy generation section of the industry. The job total for this is 569,000. Many of those jobs have already started to disappear, particularly among companies that build and manage offshore wind. 

The future of one other set of jobs is hard to forecast. The clean vehicles industry employs 400,000 people. As EV sales slow, some of these will be at risk.

If a recession is married with a rotation back to fossil fuels, hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk. 

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