Climate Change Workforce

With the growing demand for businesses to adopt sustainable practices, the climate sector has seen a significant increase in job opportunities. LinkedIn data shows that in 2022, the number of green jobs posted was double the number of workers with green skills, and that job seekers with green skills were one-third more likely to be hired than the workforce average.

Data from the U.S. Department of Energy shows that the clean energy sector grew more than twice as fast as the overall economy in 2023. It added 142,000 jobs, accounting for roughly five percent of all new jobs created last year, with 21 percent higher wages and higher-than-average unionization rates. In June 2024, the Biden administration added more than 9,000 youth to the American Climate Corps, a federal program to bring young people into the clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience sectors; though this program ended in 2025 with the change in administrations, many of those jobs remain. Planners should track the status of the green economy and its potential impact on job creation and local economies.