Despite the economic recession, the solar industry grew significantly in 2009. The solar industry added 17,000 jobs to the US economy in 2009. Installed solar capacity grew by approximately 37%. And we saw a serious drop in the cost of solar. (more info and graphs below)
46,000 jobs are supported by the solar industry now, but that number is expected to climb to over 60,000 by the end of 2010.