Definitive Guide to LED & Solar
A focused guide on hiring, certifying, and retaining solar installers and LED retrofit electricians in one of the fastest-growing labor pools in the trades. Certification-verification tactics, role-specific recruiting playbooks, and a candid look at what works.
What's inside
- What BLS and O*NET data actually says about solar and electrician pay and growth
- How NABCEP certification works - and why verifying it directly matters more than a resume line
- The 10 most-recruited LED retrofit and solar roles
- A practical hiring playbook for screening verified credentials
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Download Definitive Guide to LED & SolarThe LED & solar market this paper is about, in federal numbers.
Every claim the paper makes sits on top of these. They are published, they are free, and we would rather you saw them first.
There were 38,369 nonresidential electrical contractors in the United States in 2023, employing 697,833 people at an average of $84,633 a year. Against 2018 that is +5.8% employers, +10% employment, +21% average pay - five years, before inflation is taken out of any of it. BLS counts commercial solar and LED retrofit firms under nonresidential electrical contractors.
There is no federal occupation code for LED & solar on its own. Solar Photovoltaic Installers is the closest published occupation, and it is what every figure in this section describes.
Where the work is most concentrated.
- Bakersfield, CA — 5.43× the national rate of solar photovoltaic installers, 370 employed
- Ogden, UT — 3.42× the national rate of solar photovoltaic installers, 190 employed
- Provo, UT — 3.31× the national rate of solar photovoltaic installers, 200 employed
- Sacramento, CA — 3.23× the national rate of solar photovoltaic installers, 700 employed
- Austin, TX — 3.18× the national rate of solar photovoltaic installers, 830 employed
- Houston, TX — 2.45× the national rate of solar photovoltaic installers, 1,620 employed
Concentration is not the same as volume. A metro can be the densest market in the country for a trade and still be a small one - which is exactly the condition that makes a search hard, and is why the paper treats the two separately.
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2018 and 2023 annual averages, private-sector employers. Concentration from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
