"Clean energy industries lost more than 106,000 jobs last month due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and could end up shedding over 15% of their entire workforce this quarter, according to a report released yesterday.

The analysis — commissioned by advocates E2, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and E4TheFuture — found that clean energy companies last month laid off the equivalent of last year's entire 3% gain in employment. That did not include the hundreds of thousands of employees who had been furloughed or had their hours cut. The report included the renewable, electric vehicle, low-carbon fuel, energy efficiency and energy storage sectors.

"Sadly, we know for certain that, given historic jobless claims in April, this is just the beginning. April is expected to be much worse," said Phil Jordan, vice president and principal at BW Research Partnership, a California-based economic research firm that conducted the analysis for the groups."

David Iaconangelo reports for Energywire April 16, 2020. [2]