June 28, 2012

Black cloud over 'green jobs' report has silver lining

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Through the dark days of the Great Recession, there was a faint ray of hope for recovery, and it was colored green. Many progressive leaders, from the Obama administration to the Seattle city government, had pinned their hopes on the creation of new jobs in the environmental-sciences sector to help pull the national and local economies out of the doldrums.

However, as the recovery limped slowly along, the emerald hue began to fade. While major investments were made over the last four years in improving solar panel performance, building wind turbines, making buildings more efficient and developing non-fossil fuels, the effect of these clean technologies on the overall unemployment rate were slight, at best. The 3 million or so "green" jobs created nationwide by 2010 were a nice start, but we never quite made it to the promised land of establishing a robust "green-collar" economy.

This week, the Washington state Employment Security Department (ESD) confirmed that many of these suspicions were true in our neck of the woods as well. The department's third study of green jobs in Washington state, known as the 2011 Green-Economy Jobs Report, estimated that total clean-tech employment in the state actually shrank by about 18,300 jobs from 2009 to 2011, an 18 percent decrease.

While the global economic downturn played a major role in these job losses, the reasons behind the anemic performance of green jobs may not be as black-and-white as they initially appear. In some ways, the ESD study suggested, the green-collar movement may have been victimized by the success of its own ideals, with much of its progress hidden by redefined job descriptions.

According to the comprehensive ESD study, the state defines a "green job" as one in which workers are "helping to increase energy efficiency, produce renewable energy, or prevent, reduce or clean up pollution." In the ESD survey, more than 21,000 Washington employers in both the public and private sector were asked to identify how many of their employees had one or more of these activities as a primary focus of their jobs. Altogether, the study counted an estimated 120,000 green jobs in 2011, nearly 105,000 of them in the private sector.

But besides a few specific titles that are unique to niche industries, such as "wind-turbine technician" and "solar-panel designer," the ESD said that very few new occupations or industries have been identified as uniquely green since 2008. The basic logic of green business practices (lower energy use, sustainable materials, reduced emissions, a smaller carbon footprint) has made so much financial sense that it's getting harder to recognize "green" as a separate category of jobs, the ESD found.

"As more and more jobs incorporate elements of green activities, there may be fewer jobs where green responsibilities are a primary focus," explained Cynthia Forland, ESD's research director. "The green economy and the regular economy are mostly one and the same."

One of the more hopeful statistics in the Green-Economy Report was that about two-thirds of the positions identified as green came with job requirements that were nearly identical to those in non-green jobs, providing evidence that many skills required for green occupations are easily transferable.

Also, the study found that approximately 40 percent of those firms with green jobs in 2011 required one or more industry accreditations, such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification in the construction field or USDA Organic certification in the agricultural sector.

So for those Seattle-area job seekers who have been training for a career in the fabled green-collar market, don't despair over the seemingly bleak findings from the ESD. The clean-tech skills you are acquiring in energy efficiency and waste reduction may not lead to a specific green job, but they are still in demand for many other technical positions that are growing greener every year.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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clean tech, economy, engineering, green jobs