The Greening of Oregon’s Workforce. Jobs, Wages, and Training
First, what is a “green job”? In Oregon, a green job works to do one of the following: 1.Increase energy efficiency 2.Produce renewable energy 3.Prevent, reduce, or mitigate environmental degradation 4.Clean up and restoring the natural environment 5.Provide education, consulting, policy promotion, accreditation, trading and offsets, or similar services supporting any of the other categories
Green jobs are everywhere… 51,402 green jobs in 2008, spread across... 5,025 employers all major industry groups 226 different occupations 3% of Oregon’s non-federal employment To give perspective … this is roughly the same as the number of employees working in Oregon’s private hospitals.
… but are concentrated in “blue collar” occupations
Eleven occupations had at least 1,000 green jobs
Green wage levels are spread across a wide spectrum, just like wages of all jobs...
… but very few green jobs pay low wages.
On average, green jobs tended toward slightly higher wages than jobs across the entire economy… Average wage for all jobs: $19.92 per hour Average wage for green jobs: $22.61 per hour Half of all jobs pay $15.22 or more per hour About 2/3 of all green jobs pay $15.00 or more per hour Occupation mix explains some of the difference, but not all
… but green job wage levels depend on the occupation.
Two-thirds of green jobs require no education beyond high school…
… but education requirements vary widely by occupation
As is true with the whole economy… green jobs with more education usually pay higher wages
About one-third of green jobs require some kind of special license or certificate Some jobs have more than one special requirement.
Employers project a large increase, but that doesn’t mean they are hiring…
Stay tuned for new research… Knowledge, skills, and abilities of green jobs Current listings of green job openings (online now) Long-term study of “career advancement” for people completing green training programs Complete listing of courses and programs with green- related curriculum in Oregon’s community colleges
… and check out these resources too! Our research and current green job openings Career information and knowledge/skills/abilities Oregon green career pathways roadmaps (coming soon) Oregon career information
Charlie Johnson Senior Economic Analyst