The Race to Decarbonize America Needs More Workers

The US clean energy industry is facing a labour shortage due to a lack of education and training infrastructure, according to industry experts. Unlike Germany’s national training programme, which facilitates communication between education and labour sectors, the US has a haphazard system that includes employer-sponsored schemes and vocational schools that require students to pay their own tuition fees. The Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) has called for minimum training standards to be implemented to help the industry grow rapidly over the next decade to combat climate change. The Institute has predicted that by 2030, the clean energy industry could create an additional 550,000 new jobs in the US.

The Trump administration has tried to roll back the Obama-era clean power plan that would have lowered greenhouse gas emissions by 32%, and the industry is struggling to boost the supply of skilled labour as the sector expands. The Trump administration has tried to support traditional fossil fuel industries, with the president reportedly suggesting that importing Greenland could help with sourcing minerals located near the Arctic. Critics have argued that this hampers retraining and competing in international markets.

The IRLE is also promoting micro-credentialling to enable workers to transfer from one industry to another relatively easily. The clean energy industry is offering higher wages than many blue-collar industries, which should encourage people to move into these areas of employment. However, it is important that these are good quality jobs, which pay good wages and provide satisfactory working conditions. The trend towards unionization has gained pace among various US industries, yet employers retain significant control over pay and working conditions. Gradually declining unionization is a major factor contributing to income inequality, as employers are retaining more of the value created by labour.



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