The numbers have been crunched by the Labor Department and the results are in: green jobs accounted for an eye-poppingly low 2.4% of the United States’ total employment in 2010.
However, this was the first ever survey of green goods and services jobs, so we don’t yet have something with which to compare the results. Out of the total 3.1 million jobs categorized as green, the private sector provided the most green employment opportunities. The public sector contributed 860,000 jobs.
It is still hard to define and measure green jobs, as this Washington Post article points out:
In the past, employment in this field has been hard to measure because there’s been no consensus on what constitutes a green job. For its assessment, the Labor Department counted certain jobs in manufacturing, construction, utility and other sectors in which the primary function was to contribute to a green product or service. That includes the manufacture of hybrid vehicles, the production of solar power and construction projects such as weatherization. It did not include, for example, jobs in grocery stores or restaurants that primarily sell organic food.
President Obama has been championing green jobs as a growth area for post recession recovery. These numbers should not be used to tout his policies or refute them as the report does not include any growth figures and does not show how the numbers changed over time.
Among the private sector, manufacturing accounted for the greatest number of green jobs. Construction also contributed significantly with 372,100 jobs and professional, scientific and technical services added 349,000 jobs.
Perhaps not surprisingly, California had 340,000 green jobs in 2010, more than in any other state and the District of Columbia, equalling 2.3 percent of total employment.
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