Identifying Green Occupations in London

Working Paper 99 uses an O*NET-based classification of green jobs to identify occupations that are likely to be affected by the transition to a low-carbon circular (‘greener’) economy.

Among the key findings:

• There were 1.5m jobs in occupations affected by greening in London in 2019, over a quarter (28%) of all jobs in the capital. This figure is higher than estimates derived from other approaches and includes all of the jobs in a ‘green’ occupational category, regardless of whether the work is currently directed towards green tasks or duties.
• The rate of jobs growth in occupations affected by greening was higher than for non-green occupations in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of jobs in green occupations increased by 4.1% per year from 2015 to 2019 against an average of 0.6% in non-green occupations.
• The transition to a greener economy will have wide-ranging and variable impacts on skills and training requirements. There are a range of occupations where workers will need to carry out new or enhanced green tasks, with implications for education provision and workforce training. But our findings also indicate the need to address existing skills shortages to support the transition to a greener economy in London.
• There is scope to increase the diversity of employment in occupations affected by greening. Jobs in green occupations are more likely to be held by men than women and a relatively high proportion of job holders are from a White ethnic background with a relatively low proportion of workers from ethnic minorities.

This paper adds to previous GLA Economics research on the impacts of the transition to a greener economy based on analysis of greenhouse gas emissions by industry group.

Our findings have also been used to inform GLA-commissioned research which aims to identify Adult Education Budget (AEB) courses related to green jobs and explore ways for the AEB to meet green skills needs in future.

Supporting data and information that sits behind this work is available to download from the London Datastore.