The United States shed 36,949 clean energy jobs, ending four straight years of growth

The United States lost 36,949 clean energy jobs in 2025, cutting the sector’s workforce to 3.52 million and ending four consecutive years of growth. The count comes from E2, the nonpartisan group of business leaders that publishes the annual Clean Jobs America report, and it marks the first yearly decline in the industry since the pandemic.

The drop erased nearly 40 percent of the gains made in 2024, yet total clean energy employment still stands 16 percent above its 2020 level.

Efficiency, renewables and clean vehicles carry the 36,949 loss

The previous four years had run the other way. The PV Tech account describes a stretch of consistent growth that added roughly 100,000 positions a year, which makes 2025 a reversal of direction rather than a slowdown from a mature plateau. E2’s report, the eleventh in its annual series, is built to show that trajectory: the 2020 baseline, the 2021 through 2024 climb, and then the 2025 contraction that took the total to 3.52 million.

E2’s initial findings memo for Clean Jobs America 2026 says energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean vehicles all lost jobs, while only storage and grid work and biofuels grew. A summary of the report’s figures puts numbers on each category: energy efficiency fell by 21,443 jobs, renewable generation by 11,584 and clean vehicles by 9,619. Storage and grid modernization added 5,346 jobs and biofuels added 350, which brings the net loss to the 36,949 total once rounding is allowed for.

Measured in percentages, clean vehicles took the steepest hit at 2.4 percent, renewable generation fell 2.0 percent and energy efficiency 0.9 percent, while storage and grid work grew about 3 percent, according to the PV Tech account republished by now.solar.

California’s losses against Florida’s gains

Employment fell in 35 states. California lost the most, about 20,655 jobs or 3.7 percent of its clean energy workforce, which is close to 21,000 as E2 rounds it. Florida moved the other way with a gain of 3,801 jobs, or 2.1 percent, and New Mexico posted the fastest growth rate at 5.4 percent. According to pv magazine USA, the five states with the largest drops accounted for roughly 82 percent of the national net loss, so a small group of states carried most of the decline even though a majority of states shrank. California’s 20,655-job loss alone equals about 56 percent of the 36,949 national total, a share that shows how much of the national figure rests on one state.

The workforce figures are drawn from the Department of Energy’s 2026 U.S. Energy and Employment Report, which E2 analyzes using Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data. The sector remains the largest part of the American energy workforce, ahead of oil and gas at 958,000 workers and coal at 125,000.

Cancelled projects, and what E2 blames

E2 attributes the reversal to the sharp increase in clean energy project cancellations that followed federal policy changes beginning in January 2025, when the administration and Congress started rolling back support for clean energy and electric vehicles. The group’s Clean Economy Works tracker counted 142 manufacturing, generation and storage projects cancelled or downsized in 2025, representing $57.8 billion in planned investment and about 84,400 announced jobs that will now not be created. Electrek’s coverage adds that the broader energy industry shed roughly 86,000 jobs in 2025, so clean energy made up about 43 percent of the total decline.

E2’s research director, Michael Timberlake, put the finding bluntly in the PV Tech account: “America’s clean energy jobs boom didn’t just slow in 2025—it went into reverse.” Executive director Bob Keefe tied the numbers to federal policy, saying that when federal leaders play politics, American workers and the broader economy pay the price. Both statements reflect E2’s own position as a business-backed advocacy group, and the organization’s reading of cause is distinct from the employment counts themselves, which come from government data.

The cancellations tracked in 2025 have a longer shadow than the 2025 jobs count alone. In an earlier joint analysis with Atlas Public Policy, reported by Renewable Energy World, E2 said developers announced 19,800 new clean energy jobs in May and June 2026 but that cancellations roughly offset them. Timberlake called it “one step forward, one step back,” and a BW Research analysis for E2 estimated that projects abandoned since early 2025 will cost the economy nearly 470,000 jobs.

The next full test is the Department of Energy’s following annual employment report, which will show whether the 36,949-job decline in 2025 was a single-year drop or the start of a longer slide from the 3.52 million level.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

More from Morning Overview