A third of the design and construction workforce are green today

Oct 5, 2011 09:35 GMT  ·  By

According to a new study released by McGraw-Hill Construction at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo this week in Toronto, the share of green jobs is poised for a significant growth in the couple of years to come.

It looks like 35% of architects, engineers and contractors (AEC) report having green jobs today, which translates into 661,000 jobs and one-third of the industry workforce.

That share is expected to increase over the next three years, with 45% of all design and construction jobs being green by 2014.

"Green jobs" are defined as those involving more than 50% of work on green projects or designing and installing uniquely green systems, while excluding support or administrative professionals and manufacturing, production or transportation-related services.

"Green jobs are already an important part of the construction labor workforce, and signs are that they will become industry standard," said Harvey Bernstein, vice president, Industry Insights and Alliances for McGraw-Hill Construction.

"These numbers reported by the industry match our Dodge green building market sizing; so as green takes over construction activity, so too will green take over the construction workforce," he added.

The research also shows that trades jobs (carpenters, HVAC/boilermakers, electricians, concrete/cement masons, and plumbers) are expected to see the greatest growth in green jobs.

The study says that 15% of trades today are green jobs, and this is expected to increase to 25% in three years.

In addition, respondents believe that green jobs yield advantages such as more opportunity (42%) and better career advancement (41%).

The importance of training in getting and maintaining green jobs is also highlighted in the study. For example, 30% of green job workers say they needed major training when they started, and most of them report that formal education and training programs will continue to be needed.

And hiring firms seem to agree to that: 71% of hiring decision makers maintain that being green-certified increases competiveness.