Oil, Energy Independence, and the Workforce Gap

When oil prices go up, interest in renewable energy goes up too. But while the economic advantages are clear at the gas pump, the recent oil shock in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz has also clarified the national security advantage: an energy economy that relies on domestic wind and solar electricity would be more insulated from international conflicts that affect oil shipments. 

The impact of geopolitical forces, such as the conflict between the US and Iran, on the labor market is often unacknowledged and underappreciated, but the disruptions are enormous. In fact, geopolitics is one of the three themes we identified in our research report Fault Lines earlier this year. As we wrote in the report: “We’re used to an interconnected world, optimized for efficiency. Instead, we’re going to see competition, restriction, and reshuffling as countries de-risk their dependency on others.”

The conflict in the Middle East made one vulnerability of the global energy supply chain clear, and now, leaders worldwide will be considering strategies to limit their exposure to it in the future. Foreign developments can change domestic labor demand.

Making the switch from conventional to renewable energy is an incredibly complex process at any scale, and one blog post from a labor analytics company is not the place to get into all of the factors involved. We will, though, focus on one specific but vital component: workforce readiness. (And here, we’ll focus on the United States, but any country or region would face similar pressures specific to its own  workforce.)

Most discussions about the transition to renewable energy focus on infrastructure and policy, but beyond those hurdles lies the fundamental question: who is going to do the work?

Lightcast data gives us three answers: 

• 37,730 workers in the US have renewable-energy job titles;

• 671,895 workers have green skills but not those titles;

• 619,089 workers are in adjacent fossil-fuel industries right now but could, in some cases, be retrained.

Who Works In Renewable Energy Now?

The first group is the most obvious: people currently in renewable energy job-title roles, which include 37,730 profiles in the Lightcast database. While one might imagine scientists and inventors defining the renewable-energy workforce, the largest shares of the current workforce are installing, maintaining, and selling renewable energy systems, not designing them.

This is a good reminder that many of the jobs an industry creates might have little in common with how the industry is traditionally portrayed.

Looking at the skills that these workers possess, we see a similar pattern: while many of their specialized skills are specific to the renewables industry (i.e., Solar Consulting, Renewable Energy, Turbines), many  of the most common skills are broadly transferable, including Sales, Project Management, Customer Relationships, and Operations. 

Finally, we can look at the concentration of these current renewable-energy workers to anticipate the potential impact of the industry’s growth. 

The states with the highest concentration of workers are the ones that get the most sun and wind, especially in the Great Plains and Southwest. The states with lower concentrations, further east, lack a natural geography that lends itself easily to renewable energy, and many also have a population density that prohibits it (one reason Wyoming might have so many of these workers).

If the renewable-energy investment were to increase, it would likely reinforce existing clusters in the short term, because it’s cheaper and faster to scale where resources are the best and the workforce already exists. But eventually, the energy would need to move away from those states and into the larger ones that consume more power, which would require workers who can enable that kind of buildout—perhaps Transmission Line Engineers and Construction Project Managers who could facilitate production of high-voltage infrastructure at scale.

The existing population of renewable-energy workers will be vital if the industry were to grow—but they can’t be in two places at once. They’d need to stay in their existing jobs while others join them in the field. Where might those new workers come from?

How Many Other Workers Have Renewable Skills?

The second group is much larger: 671,895 profiles in our sample with renewable energy skills but without renewable energy job titles. These workers may have moved out of renewable roles, or they may work in adjacent fields where renewable energy is part of the skill set but not the job title label.

These are managers—not (necessarily) the workers who are climbing onto rooftops or servicing turbines. Instead, these are the people who coordinate, finance, permit, and deliver complex projects.

Their skills reflect that difference: Leadership, Project Management, Strategic Planning, and Contract Negotiation are all among their top skills. While the first group is more focused on hands-on deployment, this second group knows how to move projects from concept to completion.

Their geography is also different. Renewable energy jobs are tightly tied to natural resources, but renewable-relevant skills are more widely distributed. There is a strong Western presence, but also notable concentrations in the Northeast and in Washington, D.C.—likely reflecting policy, consulting, engineering, and planning roles.

That distinction is important. We don’t need every renewable-skilled worker to live next to a wind farm. Some of the most important work in scaling renewables happens in offices, planning rooms, permitting agencies, engineering firms, and construction management teams. If the renewables industry is going to grow, these workers can help it grow faster.

Who Could Work In Renewable Energy In The Future?

Finally, our third group sits outside renewable energy entirely: workers in non-renewable energy industries, including oil and gas extraction, coal mining, and related jobs supporting them. In our sample, this group includes 619,089 profiles.

These aren’t renewable workers today, but they represent a valuable potential pipeline of future renewable talent. Their job titles already mirror much of the renewable workforce: operations, management, maintenance, logistics, and infrastructure. The similarity between these types of energy makes a transition between the two plausible, though not automatic.

Many of conventional energy workers’ skills are clearly domain-specific, such as Oil And Gas, Offshore Drilling, and Pipelines. But many others are operational and project-based. Energy systems require workers who understand safety, equipment, crews, schedules, regulation, land use, and large-scale physical infrastructure. Those capabilities do not disappear when the energy source changes.

The geographic challenge is sharper here: conventional energy workers are concentrated in traditionally oil-rich states North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Alaska, and coal-rich states including Wyoming and West Virginia. And while there’s some overlap with states that have a high concentration of renewable jobs, the mismatch in others still represents a challenge. 

Using conventional energy workers to support a renewable energy transition offers two options here: either concentrate where resources are strongest, requiring worker relocation and new training, or be deliberately directed toward fossil-heavy regions, allowing existing energy workers to be redeployed locally. The second path, though harder to manage, is potentially more sustainable because it frames the energy transition as a workforce transition, not just a climate or security project.

That’s a useful lens through which to look at an undertaking like this. No matter what other factors are involved, including climate and security, workforce readiness remains a fundamental issue. A renewable-energy transition would mean creating a renewable-energy workforce, training and redeploying thousands into new roles while taking advantage of their existing skills to make the switch as smooth as possible. But this is just part of the picture: compensation, demographics, and local labor market dynamics will all shape where, and how quickly, that transition can actually happen.

Targeted workforce strategies are how any effort at this scale actually gets built—by aligning the right workers, with the right skills, in the right place at the right time.