As the economy continues to stagnate, the focus on creating "green jobs" grows. Politicians, environmentalists and executives tout the importance of the nascent clean energy economy in replacing the tens of thousands of jobs lost in suffering industries like auto manufacturing. Laid-off workers are enrolling in new green job banks and registering for green job training programs 1,2. And state, local and federal governments are pouring billions into driving green job growth -- despite skepticism in some quarters that green jobs are a lot of hype, not the next cornerstone of the American economy.
The difficulty of settling on a single definition of a green job has made it hard to determine how many green jobs exist and the potential for future growth.
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One of the biggest drivers of green job growth is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocates $500 million to green-jobs training programs3, and billions more to create jobs in green technology industries. The number of jobs the stimulus package will create is unclear, in part because of the lack of a single definition of "green jobs. And there is broad disagreement over how much money the stimulus package actually puts toward green initiatives which could create these jobs. The total ranges from $50 billion4 to more than $110 billion5, depending on which interest group or news organization is counting. Grist, an online environmental magazine, puts the number at $82.2 billion, including $62.2 billion in "direct spending" and $20 billion in tax incentives6.
State and local government programs and private investment are playing a significant role in green job creation. Even though venture capital funding for green technology has slowed recently, it has shrunk less than other economic sectors. Environmentally friendly technologies, also called green technologies, clean technologies or "cleantech," was the largest venture capital category in the country in the third quarter of 20097,8,9. Utilities are driving green job growth10,11,12, spurred by state initiatives requiring the addition of renewable sources to their energy mix. Corporations13 are also involved. Wal-Mart Stores, for example, last year formed its Green Jobs Council14 to try to create green jobs with its suppliers and has awarded several grants to increase green jobs15. And oil companies, such as ExxonMobil, are making big investments in biofuels16.
With no single definition of a green job, finding reliable government data on green jobs has been difficult. A 2008 Global Insight study estimated that the United States had more than 750,000 green jobs in 2006, with approximately 127,000 of these in renewable power generation, 57,500 jobs in agriculture and forestry and 8,700 in construction and systems installation17.
U.S. Green Jobs by Category18
| Category |
Number of Jobs |
| Renewable Power Generation | 127,246 |
| Agriculture and Forestry | 57,546 |
| Construction & Systems Installation | 8,741 |
| Manufacturing | 60,699 |
| Equipment Dealers & Wholesalers | 6,205 |
| Engineering, Legal, Research & Consulting | 418,715 |
| Government Administration | 71,900 |
| Total | 751,051 |
Green jobs 'could be the fastest-growing segment of the United States economy over the next several decades,' according to the Global Insight study, which forecast the creation of more than 4.2 million green jobs by 203819. A 2009 study by the American Solar Energy Society predicted that renewable-energy and energy-efficiency industry jobs could grow by more than 16.3 million by 2030, depending on government policies, oil and gas prices and other factors20.
Many groups predicted a rise in green jobs even before the stimulus. A United Nations report estimated that in 2006, more than 2.3 million renewable energy jobs (including biofuels), 4 million energy efficiency jobs (including green building and construction), 250,000 jobs in green vehicle manufacturing, more than 1.3 million jobs in public transportation and more than 15 million jobs in recycling were created, as well as an unknowable number of jobs in agriculture, forestry and raw-materials manufacturing21. Another U.N. paper in 2008 projected the number of jobs could surpass 20 million, including agricultural and industrial biofuel-related jobs, by 2030.22.
Estimates on how many green jobs the stimulus will create vary widely. President Barack Obama has set a goal of creating and saving 3.5 million jobs in all fields through the package23. Christina Romer, chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, the vice president's chief economist, say it could create or save nearly 3.7 million jobs24. As for green jobs, Environment America estimates the stimulus will create 1.5 million25, while the Apollo Alliance, a green jobs advocacy group, estimates the creation of "over 1.6 million" jobs26. Obama plans to create 5 million green jobs over 10 years. 27
Meanwhile, some question whether the stimulus will really add to the total number of U.S. jobs at all. A study by Spanish researchers found that the package could end up cutting two jobs for every one it creates in the United States because of higher energy prices.28
Companies, politicians and government agencies have a vested interest in announcing jobs saved and created, especially those funded by the stimulus package. Because there's no way to independently measure the number of green jobs that are saved, industry insiders such as Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, have urged caution in reporting on these claims.
It's also difficult to evaluate the net number of jobs actually being added, as no agencies currently compile the number of layoffs specifically in green businesses. Other claims deserving of critical analysis include characterizations about the types of jobs that are being created. Not all green jobs are necessarily good jobs. Studies from Good Jobs First and by U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.) warned that many green jobs pay low wages, in some cases as low as $13 per hour for manufacturing jobs, and forecast that policies meant to stimulate green jobs could end up removing better-paying jobs that exist today.