Energizing the Workforce: Unemployment and EE
As a participant of many webinars over the last couple of months, I have been able to utilize educational tools in new ways and absorb new information daily. Through this, there has been a commonality between many of the webinars or calls that I have participated in (and no, it is not Zoom/WebEx/Skype technical difficulties). Before digging into a specific topic, the conversation of Clean Energy Jobs often presents itself. The impacts of COVID-19 have skyrocketed the unemployment rates and the future of our workforce has been brought into question. Beyond the unemployment rates, more issues that have taken precedence in normal conversations are sustainability/climate change, and the coronavirus impacts in disadvantaged communities (particularly in CA). With discussions happening across our Energy Efficiency space, we must be proactive in discovering how we will move forward from this.
As of April, a record 20.5 million American jobs were lost pushing the nation’s unemployment rate to 14.7 (US Bureau of Labor), but where do we fit into those horrifying numbers? Many statistics and reports are being released on a rolling basis surrounding the unemployment numbers, specifically for the Energy Industry. The BW Research Partnership released a memorandum to their clients that dug into the “Clean Energy Employment Initial Impacts from the COVID-19 Economic Crisis” as of March 2020. In March alone, roughly 106,400 clean energy jobs were lost in the United States, looking at about a 3% drop. To make matters even more serious, this does not include furloughed or underemployed workers. Keep in mind, this was only in March which was the start of the spread of COVID-19. As we sit here on May 13th, how much has changed since then? At this rate, we can look at loosing roughly half a million clean energy jobs. To put items in perspective for us Californians, in March we lost nearly 20,000 jobs. Just a few short months ago, Energy Efficiency was one of the most rapidly growing industries in the world. Jobs were increasing by the day and opportunities were robust. According to E2, more 110,00 clean energy jobs were created in 2018. From Energy Efficiency to Clean Vehicles, and Renewable Energy, it was an ideal time for individuals to begin their careers in energy.
One of the reasons why I wanted to begin writing about the importance of the EE workforce and the underlying issues that exist within it is because of the high level of opportunity that it was presenting. The rapid growth rate was rare, and I think seeing that gave me a sense of hope or inspiration for what the future of our space would look like. Acknowledging the energy industry as a starting point for a career, not just a job, would allow us to open the doors for opportunity, especially for marginalized groups. There were obstacles entering this workforce before the pandemic, I am trying to visualize what these obstacles will look like post COVID-19.
I do think that that is what a lot of individuals are doing currently. However, the visualizations emphasize different components that are important to their role in the energy industry. For example, one person may be visualizing how they will operate without in-person engagement to customers and another is thinking about how project installation will take place with social distancing practices. While I have countless thoughts going through my mind about the impacts of COVID-9, one that is at the center is how are we going to continue to promote diversity, inclusivity, and equity in this space? Will programs be in place or will those programs be eliminated? Will EE education be prevalent, or will we have to reallocate all our attention to rebuilding other items in our workspace?
As we slowly but surely come out of this pandemic and reacclimate ourselves, it is important that we continue to raise questions of how we can still make positive changes to our workforce? A new normal will have to be navigated but we cannot leave behind those communities that have been excluded from our work. It is important, now more than ever, that we ban together to create a bright future for the energy space and use this opportunity to grow as an industry and defy the odds.