The characteristics of energy employment in a system-wide context

Changes in energy supply in the coming decades will have major economic implications. To understand the possible employment consequences of this transition, many previous studies have considered the level and types of employment in existing energy technologies; these have, however, neglected impacts on skills and occupations. Using the hypothetical extraction approach, we explore these characteristics for employment both in - and supported by - energy activities in the UK. We show that the impact on occupation and skills across the whole economy is more evenly spread than the employment in individual sectors. From the empirical results presented here, it is clear that the system-wide demands for employment can change the pattern of labour market needs, and that this has implications for labour market planning in the low carbon transition.