Rise Of Green Jobs In America
January 14, 2012
In the effort to jumpstart a US economy with an 9% unemployment rate, greet jobs are seen an essential part of any type of recovery. These jobs help spark the rebound and produce greater productivity and prosperity by reducing unemployment, making the U.S. even more competitive in the global economy and more than that -- protecting the health of the public.
With green industries already comprising over 2.7 million jobs in the United States, a continued focus on clean energy helps boost job creation to aid in putting Americans back to work. For ever million dollars spent on clean energy projects (including energy efficiency, transit and renewables) there are 16.7 jobs created. In comparison, jobs created from the same amount of spending in fossil-fuel industries translates to only 5.3 jobs per million dollars.
The entire green energy sector is growing at a rate of approximately 8% but certain niche sectors, like wind and solar, are seeing upwards of 18% growth. Even producing cleaner cars and trucks puts more people to work and green jobs earn workers up to 13% more than jobs in other industries. Manufacturing and contractors are major winners in the rise of the green economy with programs for retrofitting current buildings putting almost 25,000 Americans to work in a three month time period. These jobs also generally require less than a college degree, which includes about 70% of available U.S. workers.
The solar industry also provides the United States with an industry that has a positive trade balance as solar components are being exported to China at a rate of $1.9 billion a year. That is in stark contrast to the $250 billion in petroleum-related products that America imported in 2010 alone.
Green jobs not only benefit the country by making improving the quality of air and water, but foster getting unemployed Americans back into the work force.