Employment in California’s advanced energy industry grew 18 percent last year, six times the rate of statewide employment growth. More than half a million California workers spend some or all of their time on advanced energy work, including energy efficiency, advanced electricity generation, biofuels, advanced grid technology, and advanced vehicles. Employers engaged in advanced energy business also expect to increase their workforce by 8 percent this year.
At just over 500,000 workers, advanced energy employs three times as many Californians as the motion picture, TV, and radio industry (145,000); more than agriculture, forestry, and fishing (475,000); and approaching construction (750,000). With one in every five advanced energy workers nationwide, California has the largest advanced energy industry by employment of any state in the country.
These are some of the results of a new jobs report released today by the Advanced Energy Economy Institute.
The AEE Institute survey of more than 800 businesses doing business in California is the second study of advanced energy employment in the state conducted by BW Research Partnership, a leading workforce and economic development research firm. The first survey, published in December 2014, found 431,000 advanced energy workers in California, with employers predicting they would add workers at a 17 percent rate in the coming year, bringing the total to more than 500,000 – a prediction that came true, according to the new survey, which asked businesses about employment levels in 2015.
“California is the nation’s leader in advanced energy policy and that leadership is paying off in jobs for Californians,” said Graham Richard, CEO of Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a national business association with many member companies in California, and the AEE Institute, its affiliated nonprofit educational organization. “Advanced energy jobs have grown at a much faster rate than jobs overall, and employers expect that to continue. That’s good news for advanced energy companies and for the California economy.”
Advanced Energy Jobs in California is available at http://info.aee.net/advanced-