Some good background on the green economy in this new WorkingNation/MISI report:
There’s a lot of debate over the green economy, particularly around whether it will create jobs or eliminate them. The answer is both. That’s our focus at WorkingNation – not the politics around the debate, the economic opportunity. And according to a new WorkingNation Green Jobs Now report, that opportunity is real, both now and in the future.
Green jobs in the U.S. are being seriously underestimated, according to MISI, a Washington, D.C.-based economic, energy, and environmental research firm conducting the research for WorkingNation.
“The U.S. green economy and the jobs generated by it are much larger and more important than is generally realized, are growing more rapidly than the overall U.S. economy or employment, and will continue to increase rapidly in both absolute and percent terms,” according to the findings.
Here are some numbers from the report worth remembering. In 1970, green jobs represented just 1% of all jobs in the country. Currently, there are nearly 9 million jobs generated by the nation’s green economy, making up about 6% of all U.S. jobs.
Given the emphasis on green initiatives, programs, and incentives, job creation is about to more than double, according to MISI’s analysis. By 2030, jobs generated by the U.S. green economy are forecast to total nearly 24 million and comprise about 14% of total jobs, the report finds. Read the full report at WorkingNation.