Global energy sector employment rose 2.2 percent last year, reaching 76 million workers and nearly doubling the pace of job growth seen in the wider global economy. The sector has added more than 5 million jobs since 2019, accounting for 2.4 percent of all net employment growth worldwide, underscoring its position as one of the most durable engines of labour demand during a period of economic uncertainty.
Electricity-related industries continue to drive the expansion. Power sector employment climbed to 22.6 million workers and has now overtaken fuel supply as the largest employer in the energy system. Solar PV remains the strongest contributor to job creation, generating half of all new electricity generation roles added since 2019. Last year alone, solar deployment added roughly 310,000 jobs, while nuclear power contributed a further 70,000 as new capacity and life-extension projects moved forward. Transmission and distribution employment grew to 8.5 million workers, although the pace of grid hiring has begun to moderate due to rising equipment costs and persistent shortages of high-voltage engineering and technical specialists.
Electrification is also reshaping workforce dynamics beyond the power sector. Nearly 800,000 new jobs emerged in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing last year, with China’s automotive sector now counting EV- and battery-related roles as nearly 40 percent of its total workforce. Energy-efficiency activities in buildings and industry employed approximately 14.3 million people, though hiring slowed as several advanced economies reduced retrofit incentives and global efficiency gains fell to around 1 percent.
Fossil fuel employment remained comparatively stable. Coal industry jobs climbed roughly 8 percent above 2019 levels, driven by rebounds in India, China, and Indonesia. Oil and gas employment has recovered most of the losses sustained in 2020, rising to around 12.4 million workers. However, falling prices and softer margins have already prompted new job reductions in 2025, and the outlook for fossil fuel hiring is expected to weaken further this year.
Despite strong headline numbers, the sector faces pronounced labour shortages. Applied technical occupations such as electricians, welders, pipefitters, substation technicians, and plant operators now represent more than half of the entire energy workforce and have added 2.5 million positions since 2019. These roles are also the most difficult to fill. A majority of surveyed firms report critical hiring bottlenecks stemming from limited availability of qualified workers, competition with the construction industries, and insufficient technical training capacity.
Demographic pressures intensify the challenge. In advanced economies, 2.4 energy workers are nearing retirement for every new entrant under the age of 25. Nuclear and grid professions face particularly steep ratios, at 1.7 and 1.4 retirees for every new entrant. At current trends, two-thirds of new energy hires by 2035 will be needed simply to replace retiring workers, constraining the capacity to scale up new infrastructure. Meanwhile, graduation rates in relevant vocational and technical fields have grown far slower than demand. To prevent the skills gap from widening further, new entrants into the energy workforce would need to increase by 40 percent by 2030. Achieving this would require approximately USD 2.6 billion in additional annual training investment, an amount representing less than 0.1 percent of global education spending.
Wage dynamics provide further signs of structural strain. Real wages grew fastest in oil and gas, followed by nuclear and coal, yet remain comparatively weak across most renewables segments. Several employers acknowledge raising pay to counter shortages, but many still cite salary limitations as a barrier in attracting skilled trades workers. These tensions persist even as many of the most in-demand technical roles continue to offer wages below broader economy averages in some regions.
Gender disparities remain acute. Women account for roughly one in five workers in the global energy sector, compared with nearly half of the broader labour market. Representation is especially low in skilled trades, where women make up less than 5 percent of workers despite rapid job growth and deep labour shortages. Leadership representation has improved gradually, rising from 13 percent a decade ago to around 18 percent today, with renewables and nuclear showing the strongest advances.
Across all modelled policy pathways, global energy employment continues to rise through 2035, though the composition varies significantly. Under current policy settings, overall growth is modest, and fossil fuel employment remains comparatively stable. Under stronger policy trajectories, vehicle manufacturing shifts, electrification, and grid expansion become dominant drivers. In a net-zero pathway, power-sector employment expands by more than 60 percent, while fossil employment declines sharply, highlighting the scale of reskilling required to maintain workforce stability.
Labour availability emerges as a foundational determinant of whether infrastructure can be delivered on time and at a reasonable cost. Shortages already contribute to schedule delays, rising system costs, and constraints on the speed of deployment. As the energy transition accelerates, workforce planning is becoming a central component of energy policy, shaping investment competitiveness, security of supply, and the feasibility of national decarbonisation strategies.
