The US sector's workforce grew to 73,000 in 2014, up from 50,000 a year earlier, AWEA said in its annual market report.
AWEA CEO Tom Kiernan also praised the retroactive one-year extension to the tax credit, passed by the government in December. But Kiernan said the PTC needed to be extended again this year if the number of jobs are to continue increasing.
The US is expecting a healthy volume of wind installation in 2015, around 50% up on 2014 as developers scramble to use the PTC extension. Over 4.7GW of capacity was added in 2014.
The extension allowed US projects that began construction activities in 2014 to apply for the credit. It gives producers of wind power a $0.023/ kWh incentive.
AWEA's report also said 12.7GW was under construction at the start of 2015 – more than any other year.
Most of the capacity under construction is in Texas where 7.5GW is being built.
