The United States needs millions of good-paying union jobs to manufacture and deploy batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, biorefineries, and more. DOE is at the forefront of scaling up technologies that will put Americans to work in quality jobs in construction, skilled trades, and engineering—building new infrastructure and a clean energy economy, while supporting workers affected by the energy transition.
DOE’s Office of Energy Jobs focuses on creating economic opportunity and economic justice, especially for historically neglected workers and communities, by leading the effort to ensure clean energy jobs provide good wages, good benefits, worker protections, and the right to form unions and collectively bargain.
DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) is raising public awareness of economic justice in the energy transition by promoting stories that exemplify how clean energy is creating quality careers and greater economic equity for underrepresented and disadvantaged workers. EERE is also considering ways to boost equity-focused workforce investments, by supporting diverse and non-traditional training partnerships and launching new communities of practice. To increase diversity in DOE and the U.S. clean energy research community, business, and industry, EERE is expanding outreach at minority-serving institutions and minority professional organizations to raise awareness of research and job opportunities.
DOE is working to:
Standardize education and training to include clean energy technologies and help integrate these materials into existing training and education pathways
Incentivize applicants for DOE funding to improve the quality and accessibility of jobs and training associated with implementation of their proposed projects and programs
Help connect the dots between education, training, entry-level jobs, and long-term careers in the clean energy sector by aggregating resources at regional scales
Support market growth and stability by fostering stable pipelines of clean energy contracts.
