Implications of the Energy Transition on Employment: Today’s Results, Tomorrow’s Needs

Abstract

As countries progress in their energy transitions, new investments have the potential to create employment. This is crucial, as countries enter their post-pandemic recovery phase. An opportunity also arises to close the gender gap in the energy sector. However, how much will need to be invested, how many jobs will be created, and for whom, remain empirical questions. Little is also known about the needs of each country and their sectors in terms of future skills and training. The present work sheds light on these questions by carrying out a harmonized firm-level survey on employment in Chile, Uruguay, and Bolivia. Findings are manifold. First, firms in emerging sectors such as energy efficiency, electric mobility, battery, storage, hydrogen, and demand management, create more direct jobs than generation firms, including renewables. Second, these firms also have the potential to create employment that is local, permanent, and direct. Finally, they can contribute to closing the gender gap. However, this employment creation will not come on its own and will not be equal between countries. It will require improving the workforces qualifications and considering each countrys labor market and market structures specificities.

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“…A previous survey by the Inter-American Development Bank's (Ravillard et al 2021) identified a higher participation of women in emerging sectors in Latin America, including energy efficiency.…”

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“…Portanto, a etapa de implantação da cadeia energética nas diversas regiões do seu traçado, principalmente no local de O&M da UG, geram uma influência no desenvolvimento local agudo e crônico, ou seja, tem influência de LP, diferentemente das etapas pré-operacionaisestudo, projeto e construção -, em que os dois primeiros geram empregos e renda temporários, não necessariamente no local de implantação da cadeia energética, e o terceiro, mesmo sendo o mais intensivo em geração de empregos, possui um pico entre o segundo e o terceiro ano de implantação até se exaurir no seu término, persistindo no local apenas os empregos operacionais de O&M e serviços especializados para a UG (Ravillard et al, 2021), que também são menos intensivos, porém são de LP.…”