How many energy jobs are there in the US?
In 2024, the energy sector had a workforce of 8.5 million people and a growth rate of 7.5% since 2016 — outpacing US job growth as a whole.
In 2024, 8.5 million people had energy-related jobs, roughly 5.4% of all jobs worked that year. For scale, that’s nearly the populations of Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio and San Diego combined.
Energy jobs include a spectrum of roles such as engineers and drill operators to architects and auto mechanics. They work across many industries including electric power generation, transmission, distribution, storage, fuels, energy efficiency, and motor vehicles.
The sector lost nearly 10% of total jobs in 2020’s pandemic-driven economic downturn. As of 2024, the energy sector has surpassed the pre-pandemic peak (in 2019) by nearly 200,000 jobs.
Which states have the most energy jobs?
Texas leads the nation in energy jobs, employing over 990,000 individuals in the energy sector. That’s roughly eight out of every 100 workers statewide. Oil and natural gas production alone employed more than 289,000 people.
Over 16% of workers have an energy job in Wyoming and North Dakota.
Rate of energy jobs per 100 workers, 2024
California is second with over 941,000 energy jobs, about six out of every 100 workers statewide. Its largest subsector is energy efficiency — which focuses on reducing energy use and costs, and enhancing sustainability. The subsector has more than 312,000 energy jobs.
Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio each employ thousands in car manufacturing and maintenance: over 244,000 (MI), 163,000 (IN) and 161,000 (OH) people respectively. That’s more than a fifth of all car-related energy jobs in the country.
Wyoming, North Dakota, and West Virginia have large oil, natural gas, coal, and energy distribution/storage industries. They led the country in the rate of energy jobs each at over 15 per 100 workers, but with fewer energy jobs than other states (a cumulative total of 138,115) employed in the energy sector.
Which industries have the most energy jobs?
The energy workforce is distributed across technologies. From largest to smallest share of nationwide energy employment, they are:
- Motor vehicles (31.1%)
- Energy efficiency (28.1%)
- Transmission, distribution, and storage (17.3%)
- Fuels (12.5%)
- Electric power generation (11.0%)
Each of these categories includes other sub-classifications defined by the Department of Energy (DOE).
For example, electric power generation includes jobs in fossil fuel (such as oil, gas, and coal) and renewable energy (such as solar and wind) production. Similarly, the motor vehicles sector has sub-categories for gas and diesel, hybrid and electric cars.
The largest category of energy jobs is in gasoline and diesel vehicle manufacturing and maintenance, which employs over 2 million people — 24% of all energy jobs nationwide. This includes manufacturing vehicles and parts, design, shipping, and repair.
The gas, diesel, oil, and natural gas sectors accounted for one-third of energy jobs.
Total employment by energy technology, 2024
How have energy jobs grown over time?
Between 2016 and 2024, energy jobs grew by 7.5% overall. The rate of growth during that period has not been a straight line — the energy sector lost about 840,000 jobs during the pandemic.
More recently, the number of US energy sector jobs grew 1.2% from 2023 to 2024, outpacing overall US employment, which increased 0.2% in the same period.
Battery powered electric vehicle manufacturing has grown faster than any energy sector, increasing by 253% since 2016. In 2024, it employed over 148,000 people, compared to just under 42,000 in 2016. According to the Department of Energy, overall growth is due to consumer demand that is driven by changing preferences, more advanced EV technologies, and more competitive pricing. In the past year, however, this sub-sector declined 1.0% from 2023 to 2024.
There are 1.5 times more people employed in battery electric vehicles in 2024 than in 2016.
Employment totals and changes by energy job sub-sectors, 2024
But that wasn’t the only vehicle sector that lost jobs. The motor vehicle sector as a whole declined 1.2% from 2023 to 2024. The highest rate of decline was with plug-in hybrid vehicles at –5.0% (a loss of over 3,600).
Hybrid and electric vehicles make up the fastest growing energy technology.
Percent change in total employment by energy technology, 2016–2024
Renewable energy technologies such as wind, geothermal, bioenergy and low impact hydroelectric power have all grown more than 30% since 2016. The solar power industry is the largest sub-industry by employment in the electric power generation category and employs about 370,000 people — just under 2016 levels.
How is legislation influencing energy jobs?
In many ways. Through policy and spending bills, the energy industry has been in the middle of major pieces of legislation in the past five years that target sub-sectors for growth and cutbacks.
Between November 2021 and August 2022, three major pieces of legislation were signed into law — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. Each of these laws had a wide variety of topics in their focus, but a common theme between them was investing in clean and renewable energy.
For example, the Inflation Reduction Act committed around $370 billion to clean energy and climate efforts. This included funds toward advanced vehicle production loans ($3 billion), industrial emission reductions ($5.8 billion), home energy efficiency rebates ($9 billion), the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund ($27 billion), and clean energy loans ($40 billion). The Infrastructure Act committed approximately $75 billion to clean energy initiatives.
Many of the policies and funding, however, were changed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which was signed into law in July 2025. This legislation rescinded or shortened the eligibility of renewable energy and energy efficiency tax credits, eliminated programs to support the development of clean energy infrastructure, and redirected financing and leasing of federal land to support fossil fuel development.
For example, the OBBBA eliminated or reduced the timeline of eligibility for many of the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credits for new clean energy projects.
The OBBBA also expanded coal, oil and gas leasing while reducing fee rates for extraction on federal lands, making fossil fuel extraction more available and less expensive for companies.
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Page sources
Department of Energy
United States Energy and Employment Report
