LANSING – A new report contends more than 113,400 Michiganders worked in clean energy and clean vehicles at the end of 2020, but due to the impact of COVID-19, the 2020 total represents a 9.5 percent decrease from 2019, or 11,900 jobs.

The report from Environmental Entrepreneurs and Clean Energy Trust comes as Congress and the Biden administration are considering legislation to boost federal investments in clean energy and clean vehicles, and as the state continues to implement Governor Whitmer’s Executive Action on Climate.

Like most of the economy, clean energy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn in 2020. According to this year’s Clean Jobs Midwest, 2020 was the first year-to-year decline since E2 and Clean Energy Trust began tracking Michigan clean energy jobs.

At one point, more than 31,000 Michigan clean energy workers had filed for unemployment, but the sector surged back 20.4 percent in the second half of the year to recover about two-thirds of the jobs initially lost.

The final 2020 job numbers represent a 9.5 percent drop in Michigan’s clean energy workforce from 2019, or 11,900 jobs. Last year’s job losses were a dramatic change of pace for the industry. In the 3 years leading up to 2020, for example, clean energy jobs grew almost 3 times as fast as overall statewide employment.

Despite the setbacks, clean energy jobs rebounded quicker than overall Michigan workforce, according to the analysis. Michigan can take advantage of the sector’s high job growth potential by enacting policies that support renewable energy, energy efficiency and electric vehicles. Policies that move Michigan towards its goal of decarbonization by 2050 will help create tens of thousands of new jobs for decades as Michigan moves beyond the immediate recovery.

According to the analysis, energy efficiency jobs saw the biggest drop, declining about 13 percent over the year as workers were prevented from entering homes and offices because of the pandemic lockdowns. Other clean energy sectors also saw significant declines in 2020, including renewable energy [5.9 percent], grid and storage [8.1 percent], and clean fuels [4.1 percent].

Several clean energy sectors did see job gains in 2020, including Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles, which combined now employs about 24,268 workers as an increasing number of automakers announced shifts to producing 100 percent zero-emission vehicles.

Nationwide clean energy employment finished 2020 down about 307,000 jobs from 2019’s high of nearly 3.4 million, recovering about 300,000 jobs nationally from June to December – a rate faster than nationwide employment growth during that period.

Other Findings:

  • Energy efficiency, Michigan’s largest clean energy employer, now employs 74,242. The sector was hardest hit in 2020 – losing 11,081 jobs or 13 percent of its total workforce.
  • Renewable energy now employs 10,767 Michiganders, including 4,967 in wind and 4,555 in solar.
  • Clean vehicles employ 24,268 Michiganders.
  • Grid and storage employ 3,579 Michiganders.
  • Clean fuels employ 600 Michiganders.
  • Small businesses drive Michigan’s clean energy sector – in 2020, 77.9 percent of Michigan’s clean energy businesses employed fewer than 20 people.
  • Clean energy employed workers in all 83 counties in Michigan.
  • Clean energy employed workers in all 14 congressional districts in Michigan.
  • 10.3 percent of Michiganders employed in clean energy are veterans.

For a full breakdown of clean energy jobs in each sector and for every state in the Midwest, see the detailed breakdowns available at www.cleanjobsmidwest.com – including job totals for every county, congressional district, and state legislative district.

Methodology:

The analysis is based on preliminary employment data collected and analyzed by BW Research Partnership for the 2021 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER, forthcoming). The USEER analyzes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) to track employment across many energy production, transmission, and distribution subsectors. In addition, the 2021 USEER relies on a unique supplemental survey of 35,000 business representatives across the United States.