U.S. electric utility employment 2023, by energy technology

In 2023, almost one million people worked for utilities in the electric power generation sector in the United States. Around 365,000 of these employees worked in power generation from solar sources. Wind was the second-largest source of -employment, employing some 131,000 employees that year.

Fossil fuel sector in the U.S.

In 2023, less than 50 percent of the people working in U.S. power utilities were employed in plants fueled by natural gas, coal, oil, or combined heat and power. The country plans over 74 gigawatts worth of capacity retirements from hydrocarbon plants between 2024 and 2035, approximately 10 percent of the existing fossil fuel energy capacity in the U.S.. As a result, the fossil fuel sector will likely see employment decrease.

Clean energy sector in the U.S.

Nuclear energy utilities in the U.S. had the fifth-largest number of employees in 2022, and the nuclear industry jobs in the country had a fourfold increase when the power plant Vogtle started operations in 2023. Both hydropower and solar energy-related jobs showed a significant growing trend that same year.