Sep 16 2008
Background
What are Green Collar Jobs?
Growing Demand for Green Collar Workers
Background
Blue collar jobs and white collar jobs, we all know what they are with blue collar jobs referring to predominantly manual labour positions and white collar being office or professional jobs, but there is a new term creeping into the job market; green collar jobs.
What are Green Collar Jobs?
Green collar jobs used to be those associated with rural, farming, forestry or agricultural careers but now the term green collar jobs has been expanded to include a whole range of positions that used to be either white or blue collar roles. The modern green collar job doesn't neccesarily refer to the role itself, but the industry sector being serviced. That industry sector is associated with sustainability, the environment and cleantech. For example an electrician would traditionally hold a blue collar role but an electrician working on a wind turbine, installing solar panels or maintaining a hydroelectric power station, would be considered a green collar worker.
Growing Demand for Green Collar Workers
The green collar jobs sector is a rapidly growing one. Some green collar workers are naturally migrating from traditional roles that are being phased out in favour of my environmentally friendly practices, but other jobs are being built from the ground. For example, the American Solar Energy Society has predicted that up to a quarter of US workers will be working in the renewable energy or energy efficiency industries by 2030. Of course some consider this figure skewed as it includes all people employed by those green energy companies from engineers, scientists and mechanics, to receptionists, sales people, lawyers and accountants.
Source: AZoCleantech