As the US energy landscape shifts toward a more diverse mix of energy sources, communities historically reliant on fossil fuel jobs will need targeted support to adapt their workforces and ensure economic resilience. Areas where a sizable portion of fossil fuel employment is projected to be lost—called energy communities—are primarily located in Alaska and in the Rocky Mountains, Gulf Coast, Illinois Basin, and Appalachia regions. Without clear alternatives, displaced fossil fuel workers face unemployment, transitioning to lower-wage jobs, or uprooting their families to relocate to a new job. This could have significant economic consequences for communities reliant on carbon-intensive industries for jobs.
Research by Jacob Greenspon and Daniel Raimi identifies job opportunities for fossil fuel workers in communities reliant on oil, gas, coal, and other fossil fuel industries, providing insights that can inform workforce transition strategies. Focusing on 49 areas where jobs in the fossil fuel industry accounted for at least 5 percent of total employment in 2019, the study identifies practical non-fossil fuel job alternatives: jobs within commuting distance that offer at least 90 percent of the displaced workers’ salaries and have the highest projected job growth. It analyzes the skills needed by fossil fuel workers to transition to these alternative roles.
Key findings
- Across US communities most reliant on the fossil fuel industry for employment, the best available alternatives for fossil fuel jobs—offering at least 90 percent of current salaries—are general and operations managers, agricultural managers, and sales representatives in wholesale and manufacturing.
- While jobs in the fossil fuel industry require strong technical skills, they often lack emphasis on management and service-oriented skills—such as analytical reasoning, active learning, and decision-making—that are essential for alternative roles in sales and management.
- Skills gaps between fossil fuel jobs and management or sales roles are significantly larger in fossil-fuel-reliant communities where these workers earn higher wages because there are fewer in-demand jobs that pay as well. This trend is particularly evident in the Appalachia regions of Ohio and Kentucky, in the Rocky Mountain regions of Montana, Utah, and Wyoming, and in North Dakota. In these areas, practical job alternatives are less available and typically require more diverse skills than those used in fossil fuel jobs.
Policy and practice implications
WorkRise has identified the following implications for policy and practice:
- Workforce training providers can better facilitate these job transitions by designing training programs that equip displaced workers with the necessary skills for sustainable, well-paying jobs while minimizing retraining time and costs. While they use strong technical skills in their roles, fossil fuel workers may face gaps in areas such as analytical reasoning, active learning, and decision-making skills critical for alternative management and sales roles. Training programs in fossil-fuel-reliant communities could focus on these skills to complement their other expertise. Training can be shaped in collaboration with employers and labor organizations (e.g., unions, worker centers) to develop industry-specific curricula and establish clear employment pathways.
- Employers can tap into this skilled workforce by actively recruiting transitioning fossil fuel workers, who may bring strong technical skills to management and sales roles. Hiring managers should revise traditional requirements in job postings and consider applicants who have gained relevant management or sales skills through unconventional work experience, apprenticeships, or other credentials. Employers can also offer on-the-job training and paid apprenticeships tailored to fossil fuel workers to further support these transitions.
- Workforce development boards in fossil-fuel-reliant communities can support worker transitions by partnering with local educational institutions and workforce training providers to ensure transitioning workers can access relevant skill-building opportunities for management and sales roles. Boards could consider subsidizing training and education for workers leaving fossil fuel industries. Workforce development boards can support workers before, during, and after their employment transitions by connecting them to jobs, apprenticeships, education, and training opportunities; facilitating partnerships with employers that need workers; and promoting high-quality job opportunities—all of which may help prevent displacement into low-wage jobs or unemployment.
The authors identified the following implications for policy and practice:
- Economic and workforce development researcherscan help local leaders navigate the energy transition by identifying desirable and in-demand jobs for fossil fuel workers in communities outside the scope of this study—those with less than 5 percent of employment in carbon-intensive industries. They can also assess the unique skill demands of these communities and pinpoint critical skills gaps that must be addressed to improve workers' career prospects. In addition, research can highlight the quickest skills to develop to minimize retraining costs and time, analyze how job losses and gains in the energy sector affect broader employment, and compare nonwage compensation (such as health and pension benefits) in these alternative jobs. Community leaders can collaborate with researchers to assess emerging job opportunities in their counties.
- Local policymakers and workforce developers can assess good job matches for fossil fuel workers—along with the occupations’ skill gaps, earnings, and job growth projections—using a new interactive data tool from authors Greenspon and Raimi, in partnership with Resources for the Future. A recent working paper accompanies this tool, offering a national analysis of skills and earnings matching for fossil fuel workers transitioning to well-paying, low-carbon alternative jobs.
Example of Research to Action: About a decade ago, as coal industry jobs declined, a Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development study assessed workforce skills in Southwest Virginia. The analysis found that many coal occupations, such as roof bolters and machine operators, use STEM-related skills. Successful programs have helped miners transition these skills by addressing digital literacy gaps, with “coal-to-code” initiatives gaining significant media attention. Southwest Virginia leveraged its broadband access, ample water supply, and secure location to attract technology investments, including a partnership between the University of Virginia—previously home to the state’s only undergraduate software engineering program—and the Mach 37 Cyber Accelerator to strengthen connections with Northern Virginia’s tech industry.
Supporting workers to shift to new job opportunities as the US energy sector diversifies can help mitigate unemployment in fossil-fuel-reliant communities during the energy transition. Doing so requires proactive strategies that can be adapted to energy communities facing industrial shifts away from fossil fuels. This study identifies management and sales roles as viable alternatives for fossil fuel workers in these communities. Communities that take a coordinated approach—engaging workers, businesses, and workforce training providers—can help ensure that fossil fuel workers retain quality employment and contribute to healthy local economies.