2025 Year-End Insights

The United States Energy industry workforce is in a state of rapid, high-stakes transition, characterized by robust overall job growth concentrated in emerging sectors. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), compiled in the U.S. Energy and Employment Report, indicates that the energy sector as a whole continues to grow at a rate faster than overall U.S. employment, with median wages significantly higher than the national average (U.S. Department of Energy, "UNITED STATES ENERGY & EMPLOYMENT REPORT 2023"). However, this growth is not uniform, as there is a fundamental shift: employment in clean energy, including energy efficiency, clean power generation, and clean vehicles, is growing much faster than in traditional fossil fuel sectors, with double-digit growth seen in areas like offshore wind and battery storage. While traditional fuels like oil and gas have also seen recent job gains, primarily driven by external market factors like global conflict, these jobs face a higher long-term risk of decline, while the clean energy sector is projected to surge.

The economic dynamics tracked by St. Louis FRED underscore this transition, revealing two major, opposing forces. On one hand, the Industrial Production for Utilities, which includes electric power and gas, remains stable, reflecting the essential, non-cyclical demand for energy (FRED via U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Industrial Production: Utilities: Electric and Gas Utilities"). On the other hand, traditional sectors face the looming "great crew change," where a large portion of the experienced workforce is nearing retirement, an issue highlighted by the steady decline in employment for areas like Coal Mining and the slow long-term decline in Oil and Gas Extraction employment (FRED via U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "All Employees, Oil and Gas Extraction"). This creates a massive skills gap, where the industry has high wages and high demand for workers, but the expertise is either aging out or is not yet trained in the necessary digital, electrical grid, and battery storage technologies.

Worker sentiment gleaned from social media platforms reflects the urgency of this transition, with discussions dominated by job security anxiety in traditional fields and intense skill upgrading pressure in all sectors. Professionals in oil and gas often express concern about long-term stability and the industry's negative public perception, contributing to high rates of attrition and employees considering leaving the field entirely. Conversely, those in renewable and grid modernization sectors frequently discuss the frantic pace of hiring and the lack of readily available skilled talent, which translates into increased workloads and burnout for existing workers. A significant theme is the desire for employers to invest in job quality, including more inclusive cultures and better defined career paths, to combat the industry's perceived technological conservatism and retain a "restless talent pool."

To explore new opportunities and successfully navigate the industry shift, workers are pursuing strategies focused on technical retraining and formal apprenticeship programs. One highly successful approach is the lateral move from oil and gas engineering/technical roles into Geothermal, Carbon Capture, and Hydrogen projects, leveraging core skills in geology, fluid dynamics, and large-scale plant operations but applying them to new technologies.

Skilled tradespeople, particularly electricians and welders, are actively seeking Registered Apprenticeship programs certified for clean energy, like solar photovoltaic installation or wind turbine maintenance, which are proving to be the most direct and highly compensated pathways to the high-growth clean energy infrastructure sector (U.S. Department of Energy, "Energy Workforce"). This successful approach relies on recognizing that the foundational skills of the energy industry (safety, large-scale project management, and specialized technical repair) remain critical, but they must be applied to the next generation of energy infrastructure.

A moral and industry-ontological dilemma amongst constituents and committees within The Council on Interdisciplinary Advancement who work within or closely with the energy sector falls on the US Patent Security Category Review List of January 1971, whereby Group X and XI, items 8 & 9 are still in effect, to this day, and restrict further efficiency for clean energy generation and propulsion beyond the current low efficiency standards mandated by the US Government. If these restrictions were ever lifted, loss of jobs, corporate profits, and surrounding industries could be shattered. However, society and the environment would clearly benefit.

Q4 2025 Insights

Across the energy industry's diverse sectors, the workforce sentiment on Reddit reveals a complex picture marked by widespread burnout, career transition challenges, and a significant pay disparity debate between traditional and emerging fields. A general sense of being overwhelmed is a dominant theme, with many workers across various industries, including energy, reporting high levels of stress due to increasing workloads, resource shortages, lean teams, and general economic anxiety. This pervasive burnout is not limited to any single energy segment, suggesting systemic pressures are a major factor in the current employee experience.

Workers in the traditional fossil fuel sector, particularly oil and gas, often express a deep dissatisfaction stemming from perceived wage stagnation or cuts in recent years, despite what they see as record company profits. The appeal of high-paying, less formally-educated roles in the oil field is dwindling for some, as job security has decreased and the intensive, long-distance camp work required for many positions no longer justifies the compensation compared to local, full-time jobs. This loss of competitive pay alongside zero job security has led many to feel that the "math no longer works out" for a career in this sector. For those considering a pivot, the prospect of transitioning to clean energy is met with significant apprehension, as they recognize that their highly specialized technical knowledge, honed over years, may not be directly transferable to renewables. Furthermore, clean energy jobs often require relocation and are perceived to offer lower starting wages compared to their historical earnings, especially in the trades, creating a major financial barrier to a career change.

The renewable energy and utility sectors are experiencing substantial job growth, which is seen as a positive sign, but this boom introduces its own challenges. While the clean energy field is attracting new talent, particularly younger workers interested in energy modeling, finance, and data science, there is a clear sentiment that wages are lower than equivalent roles in fields like finance or software, particularly in expensive, high cost of living areas. Mid-career salary ceilings are a point of frustration for some technical professionals, causing many to consider moving into corporate management, job hopping, or pivoting to other high-earning industries to advance their financial standing. Furthermore, the hiring process for clean energy is described as difficult, with a perceived lack of clear pathways for both experienced engineers and trade workers, and a concern that much-needed positions remain unknown or inaccessible to the very low-income workers who might benefit from them. The utilities sector, while growing, is also dealing with the dual pressures of an aging workforce and the immense task of grid modernization and expansion to support the clean energy transition, which is creating a high demand for skilled engineers and construction workers in areas like transmission and substations.

A prevailing trend across the entire industry is that job satisfaction is now a factor of survival, not just progress. Many workers are actively exploring new opportunities, ranging from seeking niches within their current field, such as becoming an indispensable expert in a lesser-known technical area, to pursuing career pivots entirely. For those who remain, job security is frequently linked to management, specialized high-demand finance/development roles (like project finance or tax equity in renewables), or essential skilled trades. The political landscape and policy instability are also repeatedly cited as a source of anxiety, particularly in the renewable sector, where shifts in governmental support are seen as an immediate risk to job stability. The overall sentiment is that while the energy sector is undergoing a massive transformation with many opportunities, workers often feel unsupported, overworked, and undervalued in the face of these changes, forcing them to be highly proactive in managing their career trajectory to ensure long-term financial stability.

August 2025

Employee sentiment in the energy industry, particularly for oil and gas, is marked by a deep-seated apprehension. Discussions on social media professional forums reveal a sense of uncertainty and anxiety over job security due to ongoing layoffs and company-wide restructuring efforts. While there is an acknowledgment that the pay can be a significant draw, a recent posts highlight the emotional toll of working away from family, a common reality in the field. This sentiment is often balanced by a feeling that the high pay is a necessary trade-off for the demanding and often unstable nature of the work.

The energy sector's employment landscape shows a mixed picture. According to the Energy Workforce & Technology Council, the energy services sector experienced a slight decline in employment in July, losing 1,852 positions, reflecting a minor re-calibration. This comes amidst a broader cooling of the U.S. labor market. However, there are significant shifts in the types of jobs being created and eliminated. A major news item in the last month was BP's announcement of an expanded round of layoffs, with plans to cut up to 6,200 office jobs as part of a cost-cutting reset. Notably, this restructuring is accompanied by a strategic pivot away from renewables to focus on traditional oil and gas production, a move that could shape employment trends in the coming months.