The number of American "clean energy" jobs grew 9.1% between 1998 and 2007, more than twice the growth rate of employment in the economy as a whole, according to a new study that claims to be the first "hard count" of the sector. The Pew Charitable Trusts found about 68,200 companies with 770,000 jobs in the clean energy sector in 2007 - roughly half a percent of today's US workforce. The study calls it "a strong start for a new economy still very much in its infancy". By comparison, fossil fuels industries, including coal, utilities, oil and gas, had about 1.27 million workers in 2007.