Green Jobs in Oregon's Help Wanted OnLine Ads

Last week the Oregon Employment Department's Workforce and Economic Research Division participated in a panel discussion about green jobs and career opportunities at the Oregon Future Energy Conference. In honor of Earth Day, we're sharing some of the information presented at the conference.

In Oregon, a green job is defined as one with essential job duties in one or more of these areas:

• producing renewable energy,
• increasing energy efficiency,
• preventing, reducing, or mitigating environmental degradation,
• cleaning up or restoring the natural environment, or
• consulting, educating, or providing other services related to any of the above four categories.

In recent years, the Oregon Employment Department has conducted two surveys of green jobs in every industry and region across the state. We found that green jobs made up 3 percent of the workforce in 2008 and 2010. The Conference Board's Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) data series serves as a more current proxy measure of hiring demand. This series tracks green job listings in Oregon. 

The HWOL data from March 2013 show consistency with the Employment Department's previous findings. In March, green job ad volume made up 3 percent of total ad volume statewide. Many of the occupations with the highest green job ad volume in March -- such as heating and air conditioning mechanics and installers, forest and conservation workers, and carpenters -- were also among the occupations found to have the greatest number of green jobs in 2010.

For more information on green jobs in Oregon, visit QualityInfo.org/Green.