I love headlines like this:
“G.M to Hire 1,000.”
The best part is the jobs the auto giant is going to fill are green jobs. General Motors is looking to hire 1,000 engineers for its electric car division, the Chevy Volt.
When’s the last time you heard anyone mention a green job?
Yes, it’s been a while, even in CareerDiva. But today, it’s time to revisit the topic because green is where we’re seeing some serious job growth now thanks to government programs that were planted into the economy in 2009. And you all should think about getting in on the tree-hugger jobfest.
One key report from Booz Allen and the U.S. Green Building Council released last month found that millions of green jobs will be created from 2009 through 2013:
Despite a challenging economic outlook, green building will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs and pump $554 billion into the American economy – including $396 billion in wages – over the next four years (2009-2013). The study also determined that green construction spending currently supports more than 2 million American jobs and generates more than $100 billion in gross domestic product and wages.
Such job growth is permeating throughout a host of industries in this country as witnessed by GM’s decision to add 1,000 new jobs; and it may be time to start thinking about what your green job prospects could be.
There’s a lot of federal and local government training money out there you may be able to tap into.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included funds specifically for training a new green workforce.
Here’s a great story from a publication in Minnesota about two women that were able to take advantage of the billions of training dollars available. One was an out-of-work electrician, and the other just finished her master’s degree in ecological architecture and found most of the people in the field were being laid off.
Both women were tossed the same lifesaver: an offer by St. Paul nonprofit
WomenVenture to participate in a federally funded green jobs training program, Renewable Energy Network Empowering Workers.RENEW, a $4 million project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is paying to train 500 low-income Minneapolis and St. Paul residents for jobs in construction, deconstruction, manufacturing, building systems maintenance and renewable energy. The program is administered jointly by the city of Minneapolis Employment and Training Program and Ramsey County Workforce Solutions.
To find out what opportunities might be out there go to the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration site; and also contact your local labor department or any job-assistant programs in your area. Your local library also has a wealth of job information.
It might be time to rethink green jobs, especially if you want to bring back the green in your wallet.
December 1st, 2010 at 5:03 pm
It’s still a mixed bag, really. A major wind turbine manufacturer in the upper midwest had to reduce its workforce recently because of reduced demand. That, in turn, impacts companies like the one I serve, which makes components for those turbines.
With the economy still well below pre-recession levels, and manufacturing levels down, energy demand is lower, too. I was just listening to a public radio piece on the topic the other day–since demand for electricity is down, even existing alternative energy generating facilities are being told that the grid has no room for the power they are producing.
While green growth may be happening in some areas, our economy is still to vast and complex for an old dog like me to get too excited when I hear about 1,000 new jobs. That, in itself, is a sad thing.
December 2nd, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Going along with the post above, I have to wonder who will be losing jobs at the same company due to the new green industry. While I think it is great (an SO needed) it is also sad to know that people may lose their jobs due to environmental responsibility gaining popularity.
December 5th, 2010 at 8:55 am
If you are as old as I am, I’ll be 50 in March of 2011, you will remember the fascination of ‘One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind’ in July 1969. I am an absolute imbecile. I have no education barely above the ability to sort out sounds from our alphabet that resemble a vernacular. I am a Republican therefore I grunt and groan to be understood. I also am an individual of a very adroit wit. There, I just proved that I am unique and I just love to talk about my self with instant self gratitude.
I was all of 8 years old and I actually recall that they used fully charged solar batteries to operate the equipment used for filming the activities we were in awe of. It was also astonishing watching Armstrong and Aldrin deploy what looked like several tin foil umbrella’s that were solar cell collectors needed to charge the electronic ignition systems on the ‘Eagle’ so that an eventual take off was possible. The science corespondent was trying desperately to make the viewers understand this technology. As an 8 year old, I actually was fascinated at how primitive a system it sounded like and hearkened to a fantasy whereby primitive man was summoning a Sun God because the correspondent was actually making a statement that this worked here on earth and they were unsure if it would work on the moon. It took ten hours to charge the batteries full enough for one take off. I also recall the the Sea Of Tranquility was selected because it was the one crater that was large enough to allow solar energy from the sun to charge the batteries unencumbered. The idea was the vast mountain ranges on the moon, that to this day are unexplored, would have been much more interesting to investigate, however it is unfeasible because of a lack of a power source. So 40 years later, the technology is exactly the same!
If you interrupt the solar rays, you interrupt the source of power. If the wind stops blowing, you interrupt the flow of energy. My argument is natural or renewable energy sources do work however briefly. After all these decades, man simply has to rely on energy that is indeed produced almost entirely in conjunction with energy being used. I mean if you wan tot manually write a book, do so out doors in the daylight. It expends no out side source of energy.
Today people argue about why drill holes in the earth and capture earth’s NATURAL gases to burn into energy that is being consumed.The argument is the production of carbon dioxide. Yet to this day we are taught that green plants consume CO2 and release oxygen.
Am I an absolute idiot, or were taught things that were wrong???? I am stupid, or should we watch science fiction television and assume energy, which cannot be created or destroyed is always adn constantly being consumed??
December 6th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Great post. I love those headlines, too. It’s very motivating whenever I read headlines like those. It shows that there are more jobs out there and people should just persevere more to find a job for themselves. People should learn new things to adapt to these new kind of jobs, so they would be hired by these companies.
January 6th, 2011 at 1:52 am
I have mixed feelings about this topic. It’s great that green jobs are prospering now. It means that a lot of people are now thinking about the environment and that we need to take care of it. But it’s really sad that some people from other industries could lose their jobs because of these green jobs.