5. Energy & Employment

The Institute has for a number of years been involved in studies concerning the relationship between energy and employment

The Institute has for a number of years been involved in studies concerning the relationship between energy and employment (e.g. see here). In almost all countries in the region, energy industries are major employers and provide thousands of jobs, while the transformation of the sector, in line with EU’s decarbonization policies, affects job creation prospects in many ways.

Hence, IENE has developed an ongoing programme to study the role of energy and its various branches in employment and job creation. Of particular interest is the impact, which new energy activities, such as Renewables, Hydrogen, Electric Vehicles, are likely to have on job creation prospects, training requirements and employment conditions. At the same time, latest developments concerning decarbonization and the switch to clean fuels is under investigation in order to assess the impact in terms of employment.

IENE’s standing programme on “Energy & Employment in SE Europe” is mainly focused on the production, transmission, storage and management of energy and their impact on environment. The current programme moves along the following axes:

(a) Estimation of the employed workforce in the various branches of the energy sector and continuous monitoring of the job market,

(b) Identification of existing employment trends in the various branches of the energy sector in different countries,

(c) Identification and analysis of the emerging trends in employment in the various energy sub-sectors, and the energy sector as a whole.

The programme also aims to evaluate the qualitative characteristics of the various types of jobs in the different countries’ energy sector (i.e. education level, work experience, field of activity).