Manufacturing not immune from US solar jobs decline

Employment in the US solar sector declined by 8,000 in 2018, or around 3.2%, according to the latest Solar Jobs Census. Overall, solar jobs totalled 242,000, down from around 250,000 in 2017. Losses were largest in California (-9,576) and Massachusetts (-1,320) with Florida (+1,769) and Illinois (+1,308) offering up the largest gains. The latest iteration of the annual report by the Solar Foundation also recorded a fall in manufacturing jobs of 8.6% from 2017 to 2018. An increase is forecast for 2019 taking 2018’s tally of 33,726 to 34,949. The survey includes any job that is solar related for 50% of the time.