Building a workforce for a green economy

Imagine a world where every job is being environmentally responsible and is helping to keep our planet livable and beautiful. Today only 2.75% of the jobs are focused on sustainability. The first step toward a robust green economy is the capital needed to create green jobs. With the Inflation reduction act and Jobs act a lot of the public funding and tax credits is encouraging private investment in the green economy. Along with all this green investment we need a substantial workforce to meet the climate pledge.

LinkedIn's Global Green Skills report 2023 summarizes that green workforce has the classic supply and demand problem, increase in demand for green skills is twice the increase in supply. The International Labor Organization states that by 2030 24 million jobs will be created by the green economy alone. We cannot wait for federal policymakers, state community college systems, and individual employers to prepare the climate ready jobs.

Let start by looking at the problem through a couple of lenses:

Why is it hard to recruit and retain the blue collared green jobs that help build maintain the infrastructure?

One of the biggest challenges in this market is the ability to identify skilled talent. Traditional recruitment for blue collared green jobs is done by screening for experience and qualification, missing out candidates who may have gained skills through other ways. Moreover, students graduating from high school are not educated on which on the job training, apprenticeships and internships will provide them with upskilling. Focus is mainly on certification and licensing.

The loss of middle skill jobs is a major concern related to growing income inequality across the country. Workers in the clean energy economy tend to have less formal education than all workers nationally, filling jobs that boast an enticing mix of higher-pay and lower barriers to entry.

Additionally, workers with no more than a high school diploma fill over half of all energy efficiency occupations, while 45 percent of workers in clean energy production occupations share this distinction. Yet even more striking are the advanced education statistics: fewer than 17 percent of clean energy production and energy efficiency workers hold a bachelor’s degree or more, suggesting a 4-year degree is rarely required to secure the higher pay available in those sectors. By contrast, far more clean energy production and energy efficiency workers either hold associate degrees or have completed only some college, suggesting applied skills training is often more important in those positions.

An article from Mercer provides a six-point recruitment strategy to bridge this gap identifying the skills required to fill the job and craft the job posting based on those required skills. The article also provides additional skills to look for during recruitment. All of this helps us to understand we need to change our approach on both training and recruiting blue collared green workforce.

Why is it difficult to upskill white collared jobs to meet the needs of the green workforce?

LinkedIn's Global Green Skills report 2023 sights that seven in eight workers lack a single green skill, at a time when the future of our planet depends on them. The accelerating pace of change in green industries is making the entering and current workforce unsure if their current skill sets are transferable. Employers should clearly communicate the skillsets required for current and future workforce.

Business leaders and educational institutions should help close the gap by helping graduating students and employees develop skills for green jobs.

Energy production, transportation and finance are the top sectors that are critical to meet the sustainability targets. The renewable energy industry is critical in meeting the energy demand and will need a massive infusion of green skills. When hiring and job postings in renewable energy increase, the industry gains the capacity that’s needed to produce clean energy.

The labor markets have always been changing, as jobs kept adapting to technological innovations while aiming to fit the needs of communities and society at large. Today a less labor-intensive energy generation sector is emerging, new job opportunities and labor ecosystems are unlocked, which will shape the long-term plans of companies.

Despite the unprecedented challenges associated with this transformation and the need to accelerate the energy transition, which pose high risks to our capacity to reskill, upskill and bring proper competence in these sectors, this new green economy paradigm also brings unmatched potential to properly plan for a sustainable evolution of our professional duties. We need more partnerships between universities, recruiting agencies and employers to help accelerate the future of work in the green economy.