IEA: Green economy reshapes the energy employment market

Recently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released the World Energy Employment Report. The report said that at present, the number of employees in the global energy field has exceeded 65 million, accounting for about 2% of the global total labor force. Clean energy and its related industries are leading this growth.

Fatih Birol, Director of IEA, said: "The economies that currently account for more than 70% of global emissions have made a commitment to achieve net zero emissions by the middle of the 21st century. This will create millions of new clean energy jobs around the world. All countries are seeking to accelerate the growth of their own clean energy industries, which will undoubtedly generate huge employment demand." According to IEA data, up to now, clean energy and its related industries have occupied "half of the energy employment market". Last year, the total number of global energy employment increased by about 1.3 million compared with 2019, and this year may increase by 6%, while clean energy accounts for almost all of the energy employment growth.

Based on the scenario forecast of achieving zero net emissions in 2050, IEA predicted that by 2030, 14 million direct jobs and 16 million indirect jobs in clean energy will be created globally.

On the other hand, the oil and gas industry experienced the largest decline in employment at the beginning of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, which has not yet fully recovered this year.

"Compared with the fossil fuel industry, the clean energy industry has a more flexible impact on the post epidemic economy." Joel Jaeger, a researcher at the World Resources Research Institute, said, "Although the current oil and gas prices remain high, the employment level in the oil and gas industry has not recovered since 2020." Obviously, with the accelerated decarbonization of the energy structure, clean energy will undoubtedly become the most potential employment field.

The IEA report shows that the employment situation in the energy field varies according to regional differences. Asia is still the largest and fastest growing employment base in the energy field, and China is the main force leading the growth.

IEA believes that the global demand for green talents with specific skills will continue to grow. For example, project managers in residential construction need to have some relevant skills needed to manage the construction of solar power plants. As a result, enterprises prefer to redistribute labor force internally rather than recruit new employees with less experience. For this reason, many enterprises have formulated internal skill upgrading and retraining plans to cultivate more diversified energy talents.

An enterprise disclosed that it is facing great competition when recruiting labor force with necessary skills, and it is important to cultivate, attract and retain key talents.

The IEA report shows that although clean energy has led the energy employment market to achieve rapid growth in recent years, the economic downturn and high inflation still increase the employment pressure in some countries and regions. The expected intensification of the global economic recession, coupled with the record high inflation rates in Europe, the United States and other countries, may undermine the upward momentum of the energy employment market. In fact, concerns about cost inflation are inhibiting the willingness of enterprises to increase spending. The continuing shortage of labor and the increase in worker mobility will also bring challenges to recruitment activities.

Since this year, the geopolitical crisis caused by the epidemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to new demands in the global energy industry. The industry believes that, as a capital intensive industry, the energy industry aims to meet the expanding energy demand as much as possible. With the global continuous promotion of climate action and the acceleration of green energy transformation, the future employment demand of the energy industry largely depends on the investment direction of the industry.

IEA estimates that global energy investment will increase by 8% this year, reaching 2.4 trillion US dollars, but nearly half of the increase in capital expenditure is related to rising costs. "Since this year, the cost of energy project operation and peacekeeping services has continued to rise, especially in the oil and gas, power transmission and distribution, wind energy and solar energy industries. The demand for professional and highly skilled labor has led to tension in the recruitment market, which is inevitable. This will undoubtedly bring some pressure to the healthy competition and sustainable growth of the green job market."