The World Energy Employment 2024 (WEE 2024) report provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the global energy workforce, a forward view of employment demand to 2030, alongside an analysis of the opportunities and challenges that these trends pose for policy makers and other stakeholders in the energy sector.

The report is organised principally around the results of a core quantitative model, which provides estimates of demand for labour by energy industry based on a number of key drivers. This modelling adds value by providing comprehensive, detailed labour statistics with global coverage. By contrast, most official labour statistics do not cover the energy sector in detail, and while they often provide specific estimates for some traditional parts of the sector, they do not do so for many other emerging subsectors. The level of detail available is also not consistent across countries, and categories are not harmonised. In addition, energy jobs exist across economic activities, such as construction and manufacturing, which make the entire value chain difficult to capture without secondary surveys.

Our modelled estimates are based on demand drivers such as energy investment, capacity and production. As such, our model results represent the demand for labour implied by future energy system pathways. Labour supply considerations, as well as other related topics, are addressed through qualitative and ad hoc quantitative analyses, based on a wide variety of sources and inputs. For this year’s report, the IEA conducted an expansive, in-depth survey of over 190 firms in the energy industry to gain better insight on the issues and problems they are facing in hiring skilled workers, trends in wages, labour needs by occupation and long-term plans. The anonymised findings are presented throughout the report.

A brief description of the definitions and scope of our core quantitative analysis follows, with more detail on our approach available in the Methodology section of the Annex.

Quantitative estimates of employment demand are expressed in full-time equivalent (FTE) units unless otherwise stated. The terms employment and jobs are used interchangeably for this purpose.

The scope of energy employment sectors discussed in this report includes:

• The supply of energy and related minerals includes oil, gas, coal, bioenergy, critical minerals extraction (lithium, copper, cobalt and nickel), nuclear fuels and low-emissions hydrogen.
• The power sector includes generation by source (solar, wind, hydropower, fossil fuels and nuclear), power transmission facilities and grids, distribution and storage.
• Key energy end uses include vehicle manufacturing (plus electric vehicle batteries) and energy efficiency (in buildings and industry).

Within each sectoral category, our employment estimates are also broken down by economic activity. This refers to the categorisation of workers and activities as defined by the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC). For instance, employment in solar PV not only includes the installation of this technology, but also the manufacturing and assembly of the panels, and their operation and maintenance. Throughout the report, economic activities are aggregated to five groupings for simplicity:

• Raw materials
• Manufacturing
• Construction
• Professionals and utilities
• Wholesale and transport

 As such, the estimates include the direct employment effects of investment and activity in the energy sector, broadly defined to include both energy supplying sectors (e.g. oil and gas, power) and energy-using technologies (e.g. heat pumps, vehicles). They also include indirect jobs generated through the manufacture, construction and installation of core energy-supplying and energy-using facilities and devices.

On the other hand, the estimates exclude other indirect jobs generated by activities in the energy sector, such as workers who produce the steel required to construct a power plant. They also exclude induced jobs, defined as jobs supported by wages earned in the energy sector but spent elsewhere in the economy. For example, employment in shops and restaurants that open in a new mining town are not included.

The report’s focus is predominantly on today’s energy employment trends, but also includes projections to 2030 for two scenarios used in the World Energy Outlook series:

• The Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS), which is based on today’s policy settings and is designed to provide a sense of the prevailing direction of energy system progression. The STEPS considers aspirational targets and pledges only insofar as they are backed by detailed policies.
• The Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (NZE Scenario), a normative scenario which sets out a narrow but achievable pathway for the global energy sector to reach net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050, while meeting key energy-related Sustainable Development Goals.