A workforce that barely moved
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council runs the yearly count of solar workers, called the National Solar Jobs Census. It found 280,119 workers whose main job was solar work in 2024, up from 279,447 the year before, a rise of 672 jobs, or 0.24%. That total changes a lot depending on who gets counted. Workers who spent at least some time on solar, not necessarily most of their time, numbered 370,556 in 2024. Add workers in the storage industry, batteries that hold electricity for later use, and the combined total reaches 464,053.
All 3 figures are for 2024, from the same National Solar Jobs Census, and count increasingly wide groups of workers
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| Spent most of their time on solar work | 280119 |
| Spent at least some time on solar work | 370556 |
| Solar plus storage industry workers combined | 464053 |
The industry itself kept growing
The workforce count also slowed over a longer span. From 2019 to 2024 it grew 12%, far below the 167% it grew in the decade before that, from 2010 to 2019. Over that same 5 years, from 2019 to 2024, the amount of solar power installed across the United States grew 286%, the same census found. The United States Department of Energy separately reports that United States solar panel manufacturing grew 440% over the 2 years through 2025, and that solar supplied 8.2% of United States electricity generation in the 12 months through August 2025, up from 6.9% in 2024. The industry is building and generating far more power without adding many more workers to do it.
The 2019 to 2024 figures for jobs and for power installed cover the identical 5 years. All 3 figures come from the same national census
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| Solar jobs, 2010 to 2019 | 167 |
| Solar jobs, 2019 to 2024 | 12 |
| Solar power installed, 2019 to 2024 | 286 |
Where a state actually cut what it paid
The clearest case among these sources of a state cutting what it pays solar customers is not California, already covered elsewhere on this site, but Nevada. In December 2015 the Nevada Public Utilities Commission cut what homeowners are paid for solar power they send back to the grid, moving it from the retail rate, the same price homeowners pay for the electricity they use, down to the wholesale rate, the lower price utilities pay each other for power. Sunrun and SolarCity, 2 named solar installation companies, both left the state after that decision. The Nevada legislature passed Assembly Bill 405 in June 2017, restoring a payment worth 95% of the retail rate, a share that declines over time.
we can now say with confidence that Sunrun is coming back to Nevada
Lynn Jurich, chief executive of Sunrun, the company that left Nevada after the payment cut and returned after the 2017 law. Source 5.
Why one number sounds bigger than it is
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts a narrower group, people whose job title is solar photovoltaic installer, at about 31,100 workers nationally in 2025, earning a median wage of 53,140 dollars a year. The bureau projects this one occupation will grow 37% over the 10 years from 2025 to 2035, a forecast for the future, not a measured change already counted. A forecast like that, for 1 narrow job title, is the most likely source of a much larger claim about solar jobs that no number in these 5 sources actually supports.