Oregon's Green Building and Development Sector

The green building and development sector, as defined by the Oregon Green Jobs Council, includes firms involved in planning and producing energy efficient and environmentally sound homes, buildings, and communities. Analysts identified 89 private sector green building and development entities in Oregon.

Employment and Wages

Many of the jobs in the green building and development sector are at midsized companies. As the table below shows, no large companies (250+ employees) were identified in this sector. Three-fifths (60%) of the companies in this sector had fewer than 100 employees, compared with 44 percent of all employers.

Roughly 35 percent of the employees working in the green building and development sector earned at least $30 per hour, compared with 20 percent for all employees. The median hourly wage for the green building and development sector was $30.46 during the fourth quarter of 2009, while the median wage for similar sector firms was $21.40. Meanwhile, the median hourly wage for all private-sector workers was $15.70.

Recessionary Impacts?
Employment in the green building and development sector outperformed the economy as a whole during the five-year period from the fourth quarter of 2004 to the fourth quarter of 2009. The green building and development sector also outperformed similar industries such as construction.

However, the sector experienced greater decreases in employees over the one-year period ending in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the rest of the economy. Also, from 2008 to 2009 the average wage decreased by 7 percent compared with an increase in the economy as a whole of nearly 3 percent. This may indicate the sector is still feeling the effects of the housing bubble bursting and its close ties to the construction industry.

Want to know more about this industry sector? Get all the details in the full article, written by Green Jobs Analyst Erica Thatcher.