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Global energy employment outperformed labour market in 2023

The IEA's 2024 World Energy Employment report states that employment in the energy sector increased by 3.8% in 2023, exceeding the 2.2% average for the entire economy, and is expected to continue to expand by 2030. 

In November 2024, IEA released its annual World Energy Employment report, presenting a detailed overview of energy employment, including estimates of the workforce's size and distribution across different regions, sectors, and technologies. 

 

According to IEA, the global energy sector – which in this report includes energy supply, the power sector, end-use efficiency and vehicle manufacturing – employed over 67 million workers in 2023. Fuelled by record levels of investment, employment increased by 3.8% since 2022, representing an additional 2.5 million jobs in 2023 and outpacing the economy-wide average of 2.2%. 

 

IEA categorises as “end-use efficiency” the sectors of energy efficiency in buildings  – covering retrofits, heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment, as well as appliances – and of the efficiency of electric motors in industry. IEA estimates that end use efficiency employed 9.8 million workers worldwide in 2023. China leads the labour market for this sector with 3.5 million workers employed in energy efficiency in buildings, followed by North America (1.4 million workers), other Asia Pacific (1.3 million workers), Europe (1.2 million workers) and India (1.2 million workers). 

 

The report also provides projections for employment needs in 2030 based on two energy scenarios from the IEA World Energy Outlook 2024: the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS), which reflects today’s policy settings; and the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (NZE Scenario), which sets out a trajectory consistent with reaching net zero emissions globally by 2050. In both scenarios, energy employment, namely in heat pumps and HVAC, is expected to continue growing by 2030 (see figure below). 

Note that this figure may not accurately reflect employment in all refrigeration applications outside of building sector. 

 

 

For more information, the complete report is available on FRIDOC and on the IEA website.

 

 

Source 

IEA (2024), World Energy Employment 2024, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-employment-2024, Licence: CC BY 4.0