August 17, 2011

In the midst of a struggling economy and slow job market, the green job sector is one of the few areas showing growth. A recent report shows the clean economy is export and manufacturing intensive. The Brookings Institution report says on a per job basis, establishments in the clean economy export roughly twice the value of a typical U.S. job. The report also shows many cities have been able to add jobs as the result of green initiatives including renewable energy and public transit projects.

Green or clean jobs are defined as the sector of the economy that produces goods or services with an environmental benefit. The latest report shows the clean economy employes more than 2.7 million people in jobs across a diverse group of industries. Green jobs also provide more opportunity and better pay for low and middle skilled workers than the national economy as a whole. The Brookings report shows median wages in clean jobs are 13 percent higher than overall median wages in the U.S.

The report also shows the top cities with the highest growth of green jobs. Knoxville, Tennessee leads the pack with a green job growth rate of 14.6 percent a year, followed by Raleigh, North Carolina and Des Moines, Iowa. Overall, green jobs added 565,337 new jobs in America between 2003 and 2010.