New Jobs in Solar Could Outpace Oil by Next Year

If oil job postings keep dropping at their current rate, solar could become the largest energy employer in several months, reports international job site Indeed.

According to Indeed, there are an estimated 7.7 million direct and indirect jobs in the renewable energy sector. Oil jobs currently up the largest share of energy job postings on Indeed — 50%. Solar makes up 39%, and wind makes up 4%. However, low oil prices mean that over the past two years the number of oil jobs has been shrinking by an average of -12.6% per quarter, compared to solar at an average of -1.7% per quarter. Using that average, by the fourth quarter of 2016, solar would surpass oil in number of postings.

Job seeker interest is also trending towards solar. As they turn away from oil and coal, their interest in solar, nuclear and wind is picking up at 24%, 8%, and 15%, respectively, reports Indeed. View an Indeed infographic: http://blog.indeed.com/2016/04/20/new-jobs-in-solar-could-outpace-oil-by-next-year/.

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