UK green jobs’ revolution needs to be 25 times faster to hit 2030 target says job site
The UK green jobs’ revolution needs to be 25 times faster if it wants to hit the government’s 2030 target, admonished job site Indeed.
In a research published today, Indeed has showed that green job vacancies are at 0.2 per cent, around 2,000 roles per million job postings, despite rising by 13 per cent between January 2016 and October 2021.
“There’s near unanimous agreement on the need to stimulate the green economy, but our data suggests it has not yet translated into the hoped-for surge in green job creation,” said Indeed’s UK economist Jack Kennedy.
“The Prime Minister’s vision of a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ envisages the creation of both new technologies and hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
“But at the current sluggish rate of job creation, the revolution risks being tripped up by the lack of green roles.”
Recycling workers, environmental managers and ecologists feature among the most common job listings, but their salaries significantly differs. If the median pay of £18,720 for recycling workers is lower than the £31,000 UK average, salaries for environmental managers and sustainability consultants are increasingly higher – around £37,500 and £42,500 respectively.
“The government has announced several initiatives to enable the UK to transition to net zero, but with many of the most in-demand green jobs being specialist positions, policymakers will also need to consider training programmes to help workers gain the necessary skills,” he added.
According to Indeed’s analysis Wales and the north east of England have the highest concentration of green jobs, with 2,114 and 2,395 green jobs per million postings. The findings align with data from the Social Market Foundation which confirmed that these areas are among those with “the greatest potential for gains from decarbonisation” due to the skills base in post-industrial regions.
Indeed’s research comes a day after the UK Government announced its Net Zero strategy which – according to Boris Johnson – will support 440,000 new jobs by the end of the decade and unlock £90bn in investments.