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We Will Miss You, Green Jobs Report: Why Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

By Ben Tumin

 When it comes to the environment, I have to admit that I’m often guilty of taking an “ignorance is bliss” approach. Sometimes I just don’t want to know how much energy I waste by leaving Dr. Phil on for my dog to watch when I leave the house.

But there’s one environmental thing I’d like to know about: green jobs.

For the past couple years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released a survey of Green Goods and Services (GGS)—a report on green jobs.

This year’s report was good:

  • From 2010 to 2011, the total number of green jobs rose to over 3.4 million, an increase of more than 150,000; according to the L.A. Times , that’s a rate four times faster than the rate at which all other industries grew combined.
  • According to the Times, total employment in green jobs jumped 4.9% from 2010, compared to 1.2% for all jobs and 2.7% for restaurants, the next fastest growing industry.

In other words, I don’t want to own a fish taco restaurant anymore – I want to run the sustainable fishery next door.

Enough about me and fish tacos, what about you?

Realizing that there are new and exciting green opportunities is extremely important in these rough economic times.  Get informed about green jobs, get trained for the green industry, and be a leader in this new green economy.

But don’t get too excited. Getting informed is about to get much harder: we won’t have access to this info after this year. That’s because, due to sequestration, the BLS had to cut the GGS program and the green jobs survey along with it.

So come 2014, when you’re looking to find out information about:

  • How many green jobs have been created
  • How fast the green/sustainable industry is growing
  • What industries have the fastest growth of green jobs

You won’t be able to, because the information won’t exist.

This stuff matters: if we don’t know as much about green jobs, we don’t know as much about helping our environment and getting more young people employed.  Ignorance isn’t bliss.  It’s a fact of life under sequestration.