On 27 November 2024 the French government published a diagnostic of the jobs its electricity grids will need, and one sentence in it deserves more attention than it received. A single trade, the line fitter who builds and repairs overhead and underground networks, accounts on its own for more than 30% of the recruitment the grid's core trades need to 2030. Not an engineer, not a data scientist, not a project manager. A person with a harness, a crew and a van.
The same pattern runs through every document this piece reads. When official and industry bodies name the energy jobs they cannot fill, they name trades first. Engineers are named too, and we will show exactly where, but they are not at the head of the list.
Europe's energy industry is short of hands before it is short of desks: the documents name line fitters, electricians, welders and pipefitters first, the shortage sits unevenly across employers, and a candidate who knows which profile a document actually names, and at which employer, will choose a better first job than one who reads the headline total.
This is the fifth and last piece of the energy chapter of the CareerOn Industry Atlas. The first asked where the money is made, the second which positions the power system cannot replace, the third what is being built and the fourth where informed voices disagree. This one asks the question a reader brings to all of them: which jobs, and how do I prepare for one.
It reads eight documents: two from the French nuclear industry body, two French government diagnostics on grids and hydrogen, a projection of French occupations by the public planning and labour statistics services, the national employer survey of hiring needs, a global report from the International Energy Agency and a European report on shortage occupations. Each was opened and its passages checked before a word was written. Three other documents we wanted could not be opened, and none of them is used.
Five numbers that do not add up
Before naming a single job, a reader needs one warning, because the numbers in this field are almost always misread. No two of the documents here count the same thing.
The French nuclear industry body counts work capacity in full-time equivalents. Its note of 21 April 2023 projects about 125,000 direct full-time equivalents in 2023 rising to about 155,000 in 2033, and about 60,000 full-time-equivalent recruitments across the 20 segments it studies. Its plan dated May 2026 speaks of about 10,000 full-time-equivalent recruitments a year on average over ten years, half to replace people who leave and half to meet growth.
The grid diagnostic counts people. It expects nearly 43,000 recruitments over 2025 to 2030, for the core grid trades only. The International Energy Agency's report of 5 December 2025 counts companies: around 60% of the companies it surveyed reported labour shortages. The European Labour Authority's report of 27 June 2025 counts countries: welders and building electricians are in shortage in at least 75 % of the countries that reported.
A full-time equivalent is not a person, a surveyed company is not the labour market, and a country is not a worker. These five numbers cannot be added, ranked or drawn on one axis, and we do none of those things. Each is printed below with what it measures.
Five numbers, five different measures
| What the document prints | Measure | Scope, publisher |
|---|---|---|
| About 125,000 direct jobs in 2023 to about 155,000 in 2033; about 60,000 recruitments over the period | Full-time equivalents | French nuclear, GIFEN, April 2023 |
| About 10,000 recruitments a year on average over ten years | Full-time equivalents | French nuclear, GIFEN, 2026 plan |
| Nearly 43,000 recruitments, 2025 to 2030, core grid trades only | People | French grids, France 2030, November 2024 |
| Around 60% of companies reported labour shortages | Share of surveyed companies | World, IEA, December 2025 |
| Welders and building electricians in shortage in at least 75 % of reporting countries | Share of countries | Europe, economy-wide, ELA, June 2025 |
Sources 1 Groupement des industriels français de l'énergie nucléaire · 2 Groupement des industriels français de l'énergie nucléaire · 3 Secrétariat général pour l'investissement · 5 International Energy Agency · 6 European Labour Authority (ELA)
Two further figures circulate widely and do not appear here. A six-year reading of the grid number comes from a press release, not from the diagnostic, whose own period is 2025 to 2030. A larger nuclear recruitment total comes from press coverage of an update whose own document we could not admit. When the document is not in hand, the number is not printed.
Hands before desks
Read for who is named rather than how many, the documents agree with each other to a degree that is rare in labour forecasting.
The grid diagnostic lists its most strained jobs to 2030 in this order: line fitter, grid operations technician, machine setter and operator, site supervisor, and the engineering professions. The line fitter alone is more than 30% of core recruitment. The grid operations technician is the person who runs and switches the network day to day, and is listed second.
The International Energy Agency, reading the world rather than France, reaches the same place. Most of the top constrained occupations in energy, it writes, are applied technical roles: electricians, pipefitters, electrical power-line workers, and engineers, particularly in nuclear.
The European Labour Authority does not study energy at all. It studies every occupation in every reporting country. Its most widespread shortages are welders and flame cutters, nursing professionals, cooks and building electricians, each in shortage in at least 75 % of reporting countries. Two of those four are the trades an energy site needs most, and they are short everywhere, not only in energy.
That last point matters for a candidate. A welder or an electrician is not competing only for energy jobs. Hospitals, construction sites and car plants want the same hands. An energy employer is bidding against the whole economy.
France’s own employer survey says the same at home. In the 2025 hiring-needs survey by France Travail, published on 11 April 2025, employers judged half of all planned hires difficult. For welders the share was 71%, and for pipefitters 64%. It is a survey of what employers intend, not a count of hires, and it covers every sector, not energy alone.
Who the documents name first
| Profile | What the document says | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Grid line fitter | More than 30% of core grid recruitment needs to 2030, first among the most strained jobs | France 2030 grid diagnostic |
| Electricians, pipefitters, power-line workers | Among the top constrained energy occupations | IEA |
| Welders, building electricians | In shortage in at least 75 % of reporting countries | ELA |
| Grid engineering | Among the most strained grid jobs to 2030 | France 2030 grid diagnostic |
| Industrial engineers | Young entrants would fill more than three quarters of recruitment needs | France Stratégie and Dares |
Sources 3 Secrétariat général pour l'investissement · 5 International Energy Agency · 6 European Labour Authority (ELA) · 7 France Stratégie
The desk side of the picture is different, not empty. The public projection of French occupations, published on 10 March 2022, finds that for industrial engineers and technical managers, young people starting their careers would fill more than three quarters of recruitment needs. In plain terms, the schools are producing most of the engineers industry is expected to need. No equivalent sentence appears for the trades.
That projection is economy-wide and predates both the relaunch of French nuclear and the costing of the grid plans. It is a reason to take the trades-first reading seriously, not a proof that engineers are plentiful. The next section says why.
The counter-case
The strongest objection to this piece comes from inside the same document that supports it. The grid diagnostic that puts line fitters first also places the engineering professions among the most strained grid jobs to 2030. The International Energy Agency names engineers, particularly in nuclear, in the same sentence as electricians and pipefitters.
So the claim this piece makes is narrow. Trades are named first, and more often. Engineering is named too. A candidate aiming at grid project work or electrical engineering is aiming at a strained profile, and should not read this piece as a warning away from it. The only reading we refuse is the lazy one, that the energy transition is short of everyone equally, or that it is short of engineers and no one else.
A second objection is that four of the eight documents are not about energy specifically. That is correct, and it is why each is printed with its scope. The European report, the French projection and the employer survey are used only for what they say about the occupations energy shares with the rest of the economy.
Where the shortage actually sits
A headline shortage figure hides a second fact, and the nuclear industry's own plan prints it plainly. The operators and their large partners, it says, face no notable recruitment difficulty, thanks to their reputation, the positive image of nuclear and the general state of the job market. The wider acceleration, it adds, is still to come for the rest of the firms, which are unevenly able to start hiring.
For a candidate that sentence is worth more than any total. It says the large, well-known employers are filling their places, and that the harder recruitment is at the smaller firms in the supply chain. Those firms are often where a first job teaches the most, because the teams are small and the work is close to the hardware.
The hydrogen diagnostic of June 2023 shows the opposite limit. It finds every occupation code it covers in very strong tension, scoring 4 to 5 out of 5. When every job scores near the top, the score cannot tell a reader which job is hardest to fill. We print that limit rather than ranking hydrogen jobs on a measure that cannot rank them.
What CareerOn lets you rehearse, and what it does not yet
CareerOn builds job simulations: realistic, scored exercises in which a candidate does a slice of the actual work before applying for it. There are nine in energy. We held each of them against the profiles the documents name, and the result is not flattering, which is why we print it.
Three simulations match a profile a document names. The green hydrogen engineer simulation matches the engineering and project roles of the hydrogen diagnostic. The smart grid project manager simulation matches the project and electrical engineering roles of the grid diagnostic. The Li-ion battery recycling process engineer simulation matches the chemical and process engineers the International Energy Agency names, on global evidence only.
Six simulations match no profile named in these documents. That does not mean the jobs do not exist. Offshore wind engineers, solar performance analysts and district heating project managers are real roles with real employers. It means none of these eight documents names them as strained, and we will not claim a shortage the evidence does not print.
And the trades the documents rank first, the line fitter, the welder and pipefitter, the grid operations technician, have no CareerOn simulation yet. We record that as a finding about our own catalogue, not as a promise.
What CareerOn lets you rehearse, and what it does not yet
| Named profile | Simulation | State |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrogen engineering and project roles (every code scored 4 to 5 out of 5) | Green hydrogen engineer | Matched |
| Grid project lead, electrical engineer | Smart grid project manager | Matched |
| Chemical and process engineers (global) | Li-ion recycling process engineer | Matched, global evidence only |
| Grid line fitter | None | Not yet rehearsed |
| Welder, pipefitter | None | Not yet rehearsed |
| Grid operations technician | None | Not yet rehearsed |
Sources 3 Secrétariat général pour l'investissement · 4 Secrétariat général pour l'investissement · 5 International Energy Agency
What would change the reading
The reading would change if an official, energy-specific French document ranked office profiles above the trades, if the nuclear industry's current workforce update were published in a form we could open and check, or if the grid diagnostic were revised. Each would be a dated document, and we will update the piece and record the change when one appears. If CareerOn adds a simulation for a trade named here, the map above will be corrected, with the date.
What this means for your career
The five pieces of this chapter point the same way. The money, the indispensable positions, the building sites and the arguments all end at people who can do physical, regulated, technical work, and at the smaller number of professionals who can plan it, price it and explain it.
If you are drawn to the trades, the evidence is on your side more clearly than anywhere else in this chapter. Line fitting, welding, pipefitting and grid operations are named first by French, European and global documents alike, and the demand for them is not limited to energy.
If you are aiming at engineering or project work, choose the profile the documents name, and look beyond the best-known employers. The grid and hydrogen diagnostics both name project and engineering roles, and the nuclear plan tells you the harder hiring is in the supply chain.
To rehearse that work now, start with the smart grid project manager simulation if the grid appeals to you, the green hydrogen engineer simulation if you want to follow a new industry from its first plants, or the Li-ion battery recycling process engineer simulation if chemistry and processes are your ground. The other six energy simulations teach real work too; this piece simply does not have a document that names them as short. None of these documents tells you which job will suit you. Each simulation lets you do the work before you choose it.