Skip to main content

Americans now hold 3.1 million green jobs

March 28, 2012 — The U.S. Labor Department released a new report this week that shows at least 3.1 million Americans are employed in green jobs, which accounts for about 2.4 percent of the nation’s total employment.

In conjunction with the announcement, Green for All released a new video, Green Jobs for Kansas City (http://bit.ly/H4UuW2), which highlights jobs being created in the field of energy efficiency in the Green Impact Zone, a 150-square block area that has been targeted with federal funding for green job creation and energy efficient housing.

Nationwide, this is the first time the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has made an official count of environmentally friendly jobs, which is an emerging part of the economy and a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. Obama has set a goal of creating 5 million green jobs, and his stimulus plan provided $80 billion to help boost this sector.

“These green jobs are very real and important to our rebuilding economy,” said Cai Steger, energy policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The 2010 count found 2.3 million green jobs in the private sector and 860,300 in the public sector. In the private sector, manufacturing had the greatest number of green jobs with about 461,800, about 4 percent of all manufacturing employment. Construction was second, with about 372,000 jobs.

 (See the March/April 2012 issue of Greenability for a comprehensive report on green jobs in Kansas City and the announcement of the Greenability Job Network (www.greenabilityjobs.com), a green job search service.)
0 0 votes
Article Rating
guest

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments