JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR
THE GREEN ECONOMY:
A STATE-BY-STATE PICTURE OF OCCUPATIONS THAT
GAIN FROM GREEN INVESTMENTS
Robert Pollin & Jeannette Wicks-Lim
Political Economy Research Institute
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
June 2008
SUMMARY
This report provides a snapshot of what kinds of jobs are needed to build a green
economy in the United States. We focus on six key strategies for attacking global
warming and highlight some of the major “green jobs” associated with each of
these approaches.
The six green strategies we examine here are: building retrofitting, mass transit,
energy-efficient automobiles, wind power, solar power, and cellulosic biomass
fuels. We show that the vast majority of jobs associated with these six green
strategies are in the same areas of employment that people already work in to-
day, in every region and state of the country. For example, constructing wind farms
creates jobs for sheet metal workers, machinists and truck drivers, among many
others. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through retrofitting relies,
among others, on roofers, insulators and building inspectors. What makes these
entirely familiar occupations “green jobs” is that the people working in them are
contributing their everyday labors toward building a green economy. We therefore
consider and refer to the strategies examined in this report as green investments,
in addition to global warming solutions.
We present data on employment conditions in 12 separate states: Florida,
Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. For each of the 12 states, we report the num-
ber of people who are employed in each of the occupations that will be affected by
our six green economy strategies, and what the average wages are in each state
for each of these job types. We then also provide data on the national employ-
ment picture for each of the job categories we examine.
What is clear from this report is that millions of