Job Cuts Are Everywhere, Except in These Very Specific

By Melissa Angell, Policy correspondent @melissajourno

Welcome to this week's Founder Focus! I'm Melissa Angell, Inc.'s policy correspondent, and each week I'll be dissecting some of the top policy issues small businesses face. You can sign up to get this in your inbox every week here.

Small-business owners are well acquainted with labor shortages--but some sectors are bucking the trend as job growth flourishes.  

A new report from the Department of Energy shows that the clean energy sector was a driving force in U.S. job growth, with clean energy jobs growing by 4.2 percent in 2023, more than twice the rate of the overall market. The state that saw the most growth for new energy jobs? That would be Texas, which added 34,000 jobs. The Lone Star State was followed by California, North Carolina, Alabama, and Michigan. 

By head count, the energy sector added more than 250,000 jobs to the U.S. workforce last year--and more than half of those jobs were within clean energy. That includes anything from infrastructure (think upgrades to the electric grid) to clean energy manufacturing. Jobs within energy transmission, distribution, and storage saw especially strong gains, according to the report.

The job growth was largely fueled by the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022 and injected billions of dollars into the sector. As these investments progress, they stand to transform how entrepreneurs--and the rest of the country--operate as the U.S. becomes more energy-independent. Upgrades to the country's infrastructure, new building retrofits, and a shift to more energy-efficient options could influence consumer behavior just as President Eisenhower's network of interstate highways shifted travel patterns and more.

While the gains in clean energy show its promise as a go-to growth sector, it's not the top dog for growth compared with other industries just yet. Among this year's Inc. 5000 honorees,  the industry that added the most jobs in the three years ending in 2023 was logistics and transportation, with a total of 259,874 new jobs. It's important to remember, however, that the data lags here, since logistics has already begun to shed jobs this year nationwide. The industry that saw the next-best growth for Inc. 5000 companies was health services, which added about 142,372 new jobs, followed by business products and services, which added 72,168 jobs.

So yes, while the labor market is still a sore point for many small businesses across most sectors, the gains in clean energy and beyond may suggest cause for optimism. At least as long as that growth sustains and isn't a blip.

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Get back here: Despite the recent surge of Covid-19 to "very high levels" in wastewater--which is the highest level of viral activity as categorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--many employers are set on increasing the number of days workers need to be in the office. But Johns Hopkins Carey Business School says the return to the office may be damaging employee wellness, according to a report released in August.

Taking it further: "As workplaces transitioned back to pre-pandemic norms and more employees return to physical office spaces, the overall climate of well-being often regressed to the pre-pandemic level." --Johns Hopkins researchers

Eye on Washington: Lawmakers are contending with the threat of yet another government shutdown. Congress has until September 30 to pass a funding measure to keep the government open.  

Let's debate: Goldman Sachs wants small businesses to have more of a starring role during next Tuesday's debate. It plastered billboards near ABC's offices in New York City calling for the network to "make small business a part of the debate."

Photo Credit: Getty Images.