In late 2022, I attended a LinkedIn presentation on the shift in individuals wanting to work green jobs. LinkedIn stated that profiles focusing on sustainability and green jobs would surpass oil and gas job profiles by the end of 2023. I believe they are right. The next time you scroll on LinkedIn and see a post advocating for NetZero, click on it and look at when they graduated high school or college. The majority are the youngest of Millennials and Generation Z. The current top green jobs that people under 30 study, prepare for, and desire to be part of are Sustainability Manager, Wind, Solar, Ecologist, and Environmental Safety. But those are different from the jobs we in the ground source geothermal industry must fill. We want geothermal drillers, loop installers, heavy equipment operators, and green job laborers. The top green jobs have college-focused programs with onboarding, blended training, and detailed career paths. Generation Z is witnessing the impacts of carbon emissions on our planet through fires, extreme weather, and droughts. They cannot see that 45% of the construction industry's workforce is over 55 and will be retired by 2030. We as an industry must drill deeper into the construction workforce dynamics and Generations Z expectations to develop the next generation of geothermal professionals.
The United States has 166 million individuals working every day. There are 7.9 million employed in the construction industry, which generates over 1.4 trillion dollars in revenue. The construction workforce is less than 5% of the entire US workforce. As we drill deeper into the 7.9 million individuals working in construction, the majority of the workforce is Laborers, Carpenters, Electricians, and Plumbers. Sadly, the laborer role is the lowest-paid role on site, whereas the other three have the highest pay. Yes, organized labor programs establish higher wages, and several progressive states have enacted the “Jobs Acts.” Yet the average pay for most laborers is $21.00 an hour. Alternatively, the average hourly wage in America is $27.00 an hour, which is almost adequate for a living wage for one. Still, it is not a capable wage for sustaining a family. Beyond the wage disparagement, construction operators make up 1.2 million of the 7.9 million active construction workers, with the majority working in mining, followed by heavy equipment and oil/gas. All three have established training programs to develop new hires. This leaves about 1% of the US workforce to work in geothermal drilling and fieldwork.