Rafael Reyes on Monday, 17 January 2011 18:42

Updated: Green jobs and economy

While jobs in clean energy and sustainability have shown growth even in the face of the downturn (update: see below) more growth is possible.  The weakness of the economy continues to dominate the entire jobs picture.  The East Bay Express writes:

Cities, states, and the federal government have spent billions in the past few years trying to create green jobs and train workers for them. But the foreclosure crisis and the continuing economic downturn have resulted in far fewer green jobs than politicians and environmentalists had hoped. Moreover, many of the jobs available have been snatched up by highly skilled, blue-collar workers sidelined by the housing collapse, leaving less-experienced trainees still unemployed.

UC Berkeley completed a study which lays out the opportunities and challenges:

The study, "Projecting Future Labor Demand and Supply in Energy Efficiency, Distributed Generation, and Demand Response in the Context of California's Jobless Recovery," estimated that the state will produce more than 211,000 new green jobs this decade. The report also noted that there were 14,248 more green jobs in 2010 in California than in 2009. But most of those jobs were grabbed by unemployed construction workers, while recent graduates of the state's 550-plus green jobs training programs have had trouble even scoring interviews.

The Express articles highlights some of the success stories and notes the varied definitions - from "green collar" jobs to a broader array:

Environmentally conscious companies that are not normally viewed as providing green jobs actually are doing so, they argue. This expanded view, for example, would consider a business, restaurant, or market that sells locally grown, sustainable food to be a "green" business with green jobs.

Update: Next 10 released its 2011 "Many Shades of Green" update, a follow on to its 2009 report with an update, the San Jose Mercury writes:

California's "Core Green Economy" had 174,000 jobs in January 2009, up from 169,000 in January 2008, according to the report by Next 10, a nonpartisan think tank founded by philanthropist and venture capitalist Noel Perry.

The Bay Area -- a hub for solar manufacturing and other clean energy generation -- continued to post the state's strongest green employment gains, adding 2,500 jobs -- half of the 5,000 statewide -- during the January 2008 to January 2009 time frame.

The bulk of the state's green jobs are in services, such as environmental consulting and green marketing. But manufacturing represents 26 percent of all green employment -- a significant share, given that manufacturing represents just 11 percent of the state's total economy.

The growth amid the downturn is noteworthy (from the report):

While statewide green employment increased three percent between January 2008 and 2009, both the Bay Area and the
San Diego Region exceeded this rate with employment gains of eight percent and seven percent respectively over the
twelve months.

And the overall scale of the green economy is larger than many realize:

In 2009, California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) completed a survey of nearly 15,200 employers in order to estimate the number of green jobs in the state, the variety of green occupations, and their distribution across the state’s economy. This survey concluded that more than 263,000 people spend at least half their time on the job focused on the production of green products or services. Another
170,000 jobs are held by employees who spend at least part of their time on green activities. Together, the two groups represent nearly half-a-million jobs in California with green activities across all industries. The survey revealed that 7.9 percent of employers have employees with some type of green activity, and that three quarters of current green workers were trained on the job.