More Americans Have Green Jobs

Wired Science reports that there are now 770,000 green jobs among 62,800 businesses in the U.S., which makes up 3.7 percent of the overall job market.

1 minute read

June 16, 2009, 7:00 AM PDT

By Liyuan Huang


Green jobs might be our final destination some day. Although only a tiny slice of the overall American jobs pie, green jobs are already approaching the same scale as the traditional energy sector.

"The report also found that the rate of growth in green jobs in the U.S. exceeds other job sectors by a wide margin - green jobs grew 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, as opposed to 3.7 percent for the overall job market. California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York (in this order) are the biggest sources of green jobs. South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Montana, and Vermont, were at the bottom of the list.

The report divides green jobs into five categories: clean energy, energy efficiency, conservation and pollution mitigation, environmentally friendly production, and training and support."

Monday, June 15, 2009 in Wired

Lake Powell with much of the water evaporated.

Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River

Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.

October 30, 2026 - Yale Environment 360

A road in north eastern Nebraska with power lines on either side, and grassy fields.

Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity

Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.

November 6, 2026 - Grist

A rendering of a mall turned living space. People walk around a green space surrounded by apartments.

Malls are becoming the midtowns of the future

Mall and office park redevelopments are a generational opportunity to create new nodes of urbanity.

October 29, 2026 - Ben Schneider

An Amtrak train pulls into a station in chicago.

Officials claim feds 'rushed' Amtrak environmental review

Amtrak plans to move their Chicago maintenance facility from an industrial area to a residential one.

5 seconds ago - Block Club Chicago

A car drives through a puddle in NYC

NYC breaks ground on anti-flooding infrastructure project

New York City's new system will reduce stormwater flows to local sewers by 90%.

November 9 - Smart Cities Dive

Members of the Smoketown CLT gather for a photo

One Kentucky town’s secret to affordable housing

The Smoketown Community Land Trust has already built seven affordable homes for community members.

November 9 - Reasons to Be Cheerful

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.