MIT Technology Review Subscribe

Solar industry jobs are set to grow this year, despite Trump’s tariffs

Despite fears that President Donald Trump’s solar tariffs would cause job loss in the industry, it appears the opposite may in fact be happening.

Slow growth: US solar employment dipped in 2017 in response to tariff threats. But the tariffs passed were not as extreme as originally feared, and although growth has been slowed, job numbers appear to have turned around.

Advertisement

A bright spot:  The Solar Foundation predicts an increase of about 13,000 solar jobs this year, pushing total employment to a record 263,300 workers. Originally, the Solar Energy Industries Association said that 80,000 solar jobs would be lost or fail to be created as a result of the tariffs.

This story is only available to subscribers.

Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.

Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in
You’ve read all your free stories.

MIT Technology Review provides an intelligent and independent filter for the flood of information about technology.

Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in

Why? According to Bloomberg, the impact on jobs is not as dire because:

     -Solar remains a growing industry
     -The tariffs only last four years and weren’t as steep as expected
     -Developers hoarded solar panels in preparation for the tariffs, so there’s still plenty of supply for new installations

This is your last free story.
Sign in Subscribe now

Your daily newsletter about what’s up in emerging technology from MIT Technology Review.

Please, enter a valid email.
Privacy Policy
Submitting...
There was an error submitting the request.
Thanks for signing up!

Our most popular stories

Advertisement