Currents of Opportunity: Navigating Job Openings in the Electric Vehicle Industry

Legacy automakers and electric vehicle companies are in a race for innovation. With multiple household brands now hoping to deliver on their electric vehicle (EV) promises, furthering investments into electrifying their line-ups, and manufacturing better, faster, and more environmentally-friendly cars - a wealth of new job opportunities are being developed alongside the surging growth.

The combination of growing consumer demand, partnered with more progressive electric vehicle policies that aim to direct capital investment towards auto manufacturers is helping to fast-track the transition to electric and battery-operated vehicles across nearly every corner of the world.

While regions such as the United States, Europe, and China are spearheading the EV transition, key changes in policy and political investment are helping advance technological development, boosting manufacturing capacity, and assisting in crafting more efficient trade agreements between various partners.

The introduction of several policies in recent years, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, have already helped generate new job opportunities and future possibilities for the U.S. EV industry.

However, these key moments were only further building on top of an already growing industry that has experienced steady investment flowing from both the private and public sectors. Now, manufacturers are rushing to fill open positions, in a historically demanding job market that has already undergone tremendous transformation in recent years.

The steady demand for new opportunities

Following the pandemic, and the aftermath thereof, which later triggered perhaps the biggest shift in labor market conditions, and would be known as the Great Resignation - overall labor conditions have remained historically positive despite the presence of sticky inflation and eye-watering interest rates that were last seen during the Bush Administration.

Experts predict that the current change in consumer behavior, and the shift towards owning a battery-operated-vehicle (BEV) could help result in surging job growth in the auto industry.

The current prediction estimates that if BEVs are able to rise to a robust 50% of domestic auto sales by 2023, the automotive industry could generate an additional 150,000 new jobs within the decade.

Yet, this wouldn’t be the first time that legacy automakers and EV companies would add to the growing and highly dynamic U.S. job market. In a report by the Environmental Defense Fund and WSP, automakers have added more than 179,000 new EV jobs and over $165 billion in new electric vehicle investments during the last eight years.

Other sources claim that the amount of new jobs added by the EV investments is higher, with more than 188,000 new jobs generated in recent years, according to Blue Green Alliance Foundation and Atlas Public Policy's data.

However, looking at this from a more diplomatic perspective, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which doesn't necessarily specify how many new EV jobs have been added over the last decade or so, revealed that four key areas will continue to see increased demand in the coming years.

Those areas include the design and development of electric vehicles; installation and maintenance of charging infrastructure; production of batteries; and automotive production jobs.

Although these segments stretch beyond traditional labor market categories, new possibilities would only become more possible through direct investment in the wider auto industry, and better policies that can help secure the United States as a leader in the global EV industry.

New employment opportunities require (some) losses

While the auto industry might be experiencing tremendous change due to improved manufacturing policies and surging capital investment, unfortunately, growth doesn't come without cutting some losses throughout the process.

Despite all the efforts, there remains a level of risk many experts are unable to clearly identify over the long term. There has been however some indication that policy inaction could lead to increased job losses spread across the auto industry, with some experts claiming more than 75,0000 jobs could be lost by 2030 due to poor policy management, and failure to improve investment opportunities.

Stunted growth could stem from various factors, including slowing economic conditions, ineffective supply chain management, and failure to regain market dominance.

This year already has seen one of these factors playing out on the broader marketplace, with big-tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle to name just a few cutting their employee headcount due to slower client demand and rising prices.

Throughout the year, more than 249,000 tech employees, across various companies, departments, and vacancies were handed a pink slip, some often laid off via a virtual company call, or even being replaced by more efficient and productive artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Auto workers haven’t been completely shielded from these events either. Last year, several big companies, including General Motors (GM), Volkswagen, Lucid Group, Ford, and Argo AI announced cutting their headcounts in an attempt to stabilize their balance sheets and restructure their forward-looking strategy.

Some automakers have laid off employees due to their transition towards EV manufacturing in recent years. Ford cut more than 8,000 jobs last year, in an attempt to focus more on its EV business segment.

General Motors wasn’t in the same boat, but treaded through similar waters, announcing that it would limit hiring of new positions, and rather focus on filling critical needs in positions that could help further boost its presence in the auto market and more importantly, the EV industry.

Some electric vehicle companies are feeling similar tension rising up against the surface as workers begin to demand better pay, against a backdrop of surging materials and operational costs due to ineffective supply chains and geopolitical tension in Europe and the Middle East.

Chinese-based EV startup, Nio, recently announced that due to slower sales growth and waning demand, the company will look to cut nearly 10% of its workforce. Earlier in the year, word surfaced that Rivian, an American EV automaker, was planning to cut around 6% of its workforce as it looked towards restructuring its long-term strategy and regain market share due to the EV price war taking place between major automakers such as GM and Tesla.

Being laid off isn’t the only thing that prospective auto workers will need to be concerned about. In recent months, the United Auto Workers (UAW) Union, a labor union that represents auto workers in the U.S. and parts of southern Ontario, Canada, embarked on what was perhaps considered one of the biggest labor strikes in recent decades.

In mid-September this year, roughly 13,000 auto workers dropped tools at three of the biggest manufacturing plants, including at General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis Jeep assembly plants.

After nearly two months, the UAW and auto manufacturers managed to reach a deal that would help significantly increase the wages of some plant and assembly workers, further improve retirement benefits, boost pay for temporary workers, and reduce the minimum years required to receive higher pay benefits.

For legacy automakers, this would perhaps be yet another defining moment in their history, however, for electric vehicle companies, that are still trying to gain a foothold in the auto industry, and having to struggle through the growth pains that come with any new market.

The possibility of better wages and improved employee benefits are often overshadowed by the opportunity to become part of something that provides a sense of innovation, and a force of reckoning that’s still trying to navigate through various economic and political challenges.

Looking for a job? You’ll need to be an engineer first

With the wider auto industry witnessing significant changes, and with many automakers hoping to capitalize on consumer demand, progressive policies, and better investment opportunities, many of them have changed their tune regarding the type of employees they are now hiring to fill the need for critical skills that can help elevate their business growth.

As the EV industry continues to develop and breach into new markets, employability has become increasingly competitive, and perhaps increasingly difficult for college graduates and job seekers hoping to land a job in such a multifaceted industry.

While there are dozens, even hundreds of new job openings being posted by some of the biggest EV makers in the business, the qualifications required to even be considered for one of these jobs, never mind surviving the rigorous corporate hiring process, has become seemingly outlandish to some extent.

The most basic requirements, depending on the vacancy, often require applicants to hold either a Bachelor's Degree, or an equivalent degree in the field of engineering, design, development, or supply chain management.

Other, more critical jobs will require applicants to have a necessary qualification, in either electrical, chemical, mechanical, or robotics engineering. That’s not to mention, that some of these jobs will also require applicants to either have a portfolio that showcases their work or a minimum amount of years of working experience to be considered.

Keep in mind that in the U.S., nearly 50 percent of students with an engineering major will either drop out of college or change their major before graduating. The reason for this high figure? Well, one survey found that students are often ill-prepared for the complexity of the work, and many become overwhelmed with the amount of work and requirements needed to make it to graduation. Additionally, some students have indicated that a lack of success, support, and interest in the field are some of their reasons for changing majors or dropping out.

For less production-orientated positions, such as aftercare service and maintenance, job requirements can even be more stringent, coupled with a laborious hiring process. Due to the strong demand from manufacturers and service centers, and the high competition of entry, many applicants often find it increasingly challenging to land a maintenance job within their first few months of being qualified.

With cars becoming more eclectic, new components and inner workings are being introduced, which often requires existing maintenance employees to undergo additional training, or already have the necessary qualifications to service and maintain electric cars.

Landing a job is the easy part, even if it doesn’t feel that way. Keeping up with the massive amount of work is another challenge many employees often have to come to terms with.

While there may be a short supply for specific jobs, many employees often find themselves having to manage several projects at once, or even doing multiple jobs simultaneously due to the inability to fill open positions.

Other leading factors that could also make the job more demanding, and often leading to greater levels of exhaustion include longer working hours, demanding work environment, and lack of flexibility.

On top of this, many employees, both on the production floor and in the corporate office have to deal with increased job urgency due to surging competition, and the ability to scale at a much quicker rate.

Various studies and surveys have indicated that a culture of urgency in the workplace can lead to increased levels of employees feeling stressed and anxious, only further increasing burnout among employees.

For many people, when the going gets tough, they simply quit and move on to the next thing, leaving automakers even more short-staffed.

The doom cycle then only begins to repeat itself, as employees become increasingly burned out, many will experience higher levels of job dissatisfaction, leading many to quit or resign, further causing a higher employee turn around, and more pressure on existing employees to complete projects.

Working in such a dynamic and multi-dimensional industry was never expected to be easy, yet many people continue to flock towards these opportunities for better pay and wages.

Records show that some Tesla employees make a minimum of $80,000 per year, with a maximum making around $235,000 annually. The average salary for a Tesla employee was around $149,351 per year, making the median $145,000, with roughly 39.1% of Tesla employees making between $150,000 and $199,999.

Other research suggests that many EV companies have been bumping up salaries to attract younger talent, with some mid-level jobs seeing a nearly 100% increase in pay, while senior management has received a steady, yet robust 50% pay increase.

If you want to make money, you will need to work for it, that’s for sure.

Finishing Thoughts

New job seekers are taking better advantage of the increased opportunities that have been presented by the booming electric vehicle industry. However, the job doesn’t come easy, and demand is high, often creating stiff competition in the labor market.

More importantly, future employees who want to work at some of the most innovative companies in the auto industry will need to hold a dedicated degree or qualification, which also doesn’t come easy.

While no job is without a sense of urgency or stress, working on some of the most exciting projects that will help reshape the future of the global automotive market is perhaps something worth consideration. Although the journey leading up isn’t easy and requires a tremendous amount of investment, there’s truly something rewarding about working with all-electric cars that will help drive the next generation.