On January 13, 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the 2017 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), which aims to aid in providing a more complete definition and quantification of energy employment across the economy.  The report presents direct employment data for jobs associated with traditional energy companies, with the production of renewable energy, and with energy efficiency, and an analysis of a supplemental survey sent to 30,000 energy sector employers.  According to the report, bioenergy electric generation and biofuel sub-technologies employ a total of 112,642 workers, with only 7,980 individuals working exclusively with bioenergy or biomass electric generation technologies.  Nearly 64 percent of the bioenergy and biomass generation workers are employed within the construction industry. 

Corn ethanol fuels employment accounts for 28,613 jobs, primarily within the agriculture and wholesale trade industry.  Ethanol and non-woody biomass fuels employ approximately two percent of the fuels workforce (23,088 jobs).  Since non-woody biomass represents a small portion of the overall fuel source, employment is mainly focused on professional and business services such as research and development.  Woody biomass and cellulosic biofuels support 30,458 jobs, with nearly 56 percent of the jobs in the agriculture industry.  A wide range of other biofuel activity, including early-stage research and development on algal biofuel, syngas, bioheat blends, landfill gas, and advanced biofuels, is captured under the “other biofuels” category.  Together, these technologies employ 22,504 workers, primarily within the professional and business services sector.