The U.S. solar workforce is growing faster than ever, and that is made especially clear in The Solar Foundation’s 2016 National Solar Jobs Census, which shows the industry now employs more than 260,000 Americans.
As the number of solar installations in the U.S. raced past 1 million in 2016, solar companies were hiring tens of thousands of Americans in good, high-paying jobs and growing the solar workforce by 51,000 workers, or 25 percent nationwide since 2015. This is the largest annual growth since The Solar Foundation began the Solar Jobs Census in 2010.
When put in context with overall U.S. job growth, the solar industry is among the best job creators in the country. One out of every 50 new American jobs was in the solar industry last year, which is creating jobs 17 times faster than the rest of the U.S. economy. These are not minimum wage jobs, either. The median wage for a solar installer, more than half of the solar workforce, is $26 per hour.
“With a near tripling of solar jobs since 2010, the solar industry is an American success story that has created hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs,” said Andrea Luecke, President and Executive Director of The Solar Foundation.
Much of the solar jobs story, however, is told at the state level, as jobs increased in 44 out of the 50 states in 2016. California maintains the highest total number of solar jobs, followed by Massachusetts, Texas, Nevada and Florida.