IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v212y2025ics1364032125000127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Updated employment factors and occupational shares for the energy transition

Author

Listed:
  • Rutovitz, J.
  • Langdon, R.
  • Briggs, C.
  • Mey, F.
  • Dominish, E.
  • Nagrath, K.

Abstract

This study contributes to global energy workforce planning by presenting updated employment factors and occupational shares for the electricity workforce, covering generation, storage, and transmission construction. Global labour shortages are already recognised as a risk to energy sector transformation. To enable effective workforce development, it is important to know the scale, location, timing, and occupational composition of the required labour. However, data gaps may mean projections do not reflect current employment intensities and only provide gross numbers. A suite of indicators based on large-scale surveys in Australia and information from literature have been updated using cost declines as a proxy for labour productivity gains. This research presents employment factors for the number jobs created at each project stage, compares them to international estimates, and presents detailed occupational shares for five technologies. These indicators were used to make projections for the Australian 2024 Integrated System Plan for electricity, and sample results are discussed. These show that projected employment for large scale renewable generation under least cost scenarios for the energy transition are highly volatile. There is also significant overlap between occupations needed for different technologies and transmission. As countries try to rapidly expand renewable capacity and transmission infrastructure, integration of workforce projections into electricity scenarios using employment indicators allows for better planning. Workforce projections can inform policymakers of the need to reduce volatility, as well as helping training institutions, industry and governments to plan for the scale of workforce growth needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Rutovitz, J. & Langdon, R. & Briggs, C. & Mey, F. & Dominish, E. & Nagrath, K., 2025. "Updated employment factors and occupational shares for the energy transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:212:y:2025:i:c:s1364032125000127
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2025.115339
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032125000127
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2025.115339?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Buchmayr, A. & Taelman, S.E. & Thomassen, G. & Verhofstadt, E. & Van Ootegem, L. & Dewulf, J., 2023. "A distance-to-sustainability-target approach for indicator aggregation and its application for the comparison of wind energy alternatives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    2. Koasidis, Konstantinos & Nikas, Alexandros & Van de Ven, Dirk-Jan & Xexakis, Georgios & Forouli, Aikaterini & Mittal, Shivika & Gambhir, Ajay & Koutsellis, Themistoklis & Doukas, Haris, 2022. "Towards a green recovery in the EU: Aligning further emissions reductions with short- and long-term energy-sector employment gains," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    3. Ram, Manish & Aghahosseini, Arman & Breyer, Christian, 2020. "Job creation during the global energy transition towards 100% renewable power system by 2050," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    4. Malik, Aman & Bertram, Christoph & Kriegler, Elmar & Luderer, Gunnar, 2021. "Climate policy accelerates structural changes in energy employment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Osorio-Aravena, Juan Carlos & Ram, Manish & Aghahosseini, Arman & Breyer, Christian, 2025. "Evaluation of employment effects during the transition of the Chilean energy system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    2. Guo, Zhi & Mao, Xianqiang & Lu, Jianhong & Gao, Yubing & Chen, Xing & Zhang, Shining & Ma, Zhiyuan, 2024. "Can a new power system create more employment in China?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    3. Yuan, Yuan & Yang, Xiaowen & Yuan, Jiahai & Zhang, Haonan, 2025. "The employment impacts of China's power system transition: A supply chain perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    4. Koasidis, Konstantinos & Nikas, Alexandros & Van de Ven, Dirk-Jan & Xexakis, Georgios & Forouli, Aikaterini & Mittal, Shivika & Gambhir, Ajay & Koutsellis, Themistoklis & Doukas, Haris, 2022. "Towards a green recovery in the EU: Aligning further emissions reductions with short- and long-term energy-sector employment gains," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    5. Oyewo, Ayobami Solomon & Solomon, A.A. & Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Aghahosseini, Arman & Mensah, Theophilus Nii Odai & Ram, Manish & Breyer, Christian, 2021. "Just transition towards defossilised energy systems for developing economies: A case study of Ethiopia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 346-365.
    6. Miguel-Angel Perea-Moreno & Quetzalcoatl Hernandez-Escobedo & Fernando Rueda-Martinez & Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno, 2020. "Zapote Seed ( Pouteria mammosa L. ) Valorization for Thermal Energy Generation in Tropical Climates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, May.
    7. Hu, Nan & Zheng, Bing, 2023. "Natural resources, education, and green economic development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    8. Das, Pronob & Das, Barun K. & Rahman, Mushfiqur & Hassan, Rakibul, 2022. "Evaluating the prospect of utilizing excess energy and creating employments from a hybrid energy system meeting electricity and freshwater demands using multi-objective evolutionary algorithms," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PB).
    9. Assoumou, Edi & McIsaac, Florent, 2022. "Côte d'Ivoire's electricity challenge in 2050: Reconciling economic development and climate commitments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    10. Wei, Chuanhui & Zhang, Yongji & Lan, Minghui & Su, Zhi & Du, Heran & Wang, Ke, 2024. "How could we benefit from a low-carbon economy? Evidence from Chinese regional labor markets," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 523-537.
    11. Lou, Jiehong & Hu, Guangxiao & Shen, Xingchi & Cui, Ryna Yiyun, 2025. "Quantifying the economy-wide employment effects of coal-fired power plants: Two different cases China and the United States," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PC).
    12. Ram, Manish & Gulagi, Ashish & Aghahosseini, Arman & Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Breyer, Christian, 2022. "Energy transition in megacities towards 100% renewable energy: A case for Delhi," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 578-589.
    13. Jan-Philipp Sasse & Evelina Trutnevyte, 2023. "A low-carbon electricity sector in Europe risks sustaining regional inequalities in benefits and vulnerabilities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Muntasir Murshed & Mohamed Elheddad & Rizwan Ahmed & Mohga Bassim & Ei Thuzar Than, 2022. "Foreign Direct Investments, Renewable Electricity Output, and Ecological Footprints: Do Financial Globalization Facilitate Renewable Energy Transition and Environmental Welfare in Bangladesh?," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 29(1), pages 33-78, March.
    15. Cotterman, Turner & Fuchs, Erica R.H. & Whitefoot, Kate S. & Combemale, Christophe, 2024. "The transition to electrified vehicles: Evaluating the labor demand of manufacturing conventional versus battery electric vehicle powertrains," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    16. Chen, Wei & Zou, Wandan & Zhong, Kaiyang & Aliyeva, Alina, 2023. "Machine learning assessment under the development of green technology innovation: A perspective of energy transition," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 65-73.
    17. Saboori, Behnaz & Gholipour, Hassan F. & Rasoulinezhad, Ehsan & Ranjbar, Omid, 2022. "Renewable energy sources and unemployment rate: Evidence from the US states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    18. Islam, Md. Monirul & Sohag, Kazi & Hammoudeh, Shawkat & Mariev, Oleg & Samargandi, Nahla, 2022. "Minerals import demands and clean energy transitions: A disaggregated analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    19. Diamantis Koutsandreas & Evangelos Spiliotis & Haris Doukas & John Psarras, 2021. "What Is the Macroeconomic Impact of Higher Decarbonization Speeds? The Case of Greece," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-19, April.
    20. Dogan, Eyup & Chishti, Muhammad Zubair & Karimi Alavijeh, Nooshin & Tzeremes, Panayiotis, 2022. "The roles of technology and Kyoto Protocol in energy transition towards COP26 targets: Evidence from the novel GMM-PVAR approach for G-7 countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:212:y:2025:i:c:s1364032125000127. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.