This past week I was reading a piece that appeared in Parade magazine looking at the potential for
jobs creation due to the Green Building initiative.
The article cited a report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors says the “green economy” could create 4.2 million jobs in the next 30 years. More than 3 million would come from a switch to renewable power and alternative fuels.
What was no big surprise to me was that it confirmed that “It’s Joe Six-Pack with a hard hat and a lunch bucket, ready to install solar panels.” It went on to prophesy that retrofitting old buildings to meet environmental standards could replace many of the 800,000 construction jobs lost recently.
Right now, the most green jobs—including environmental lawyers, consultants, and engineers—are in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Houston. The article points out that many of the new green jobs that are being created don’t require a college degree—only access to training programs.
But that's soon to change, as the "hands-on" Green building takes place
Consider the change over the past 10 years where science, techology, MBA's, law and upper management were the way to make big bucks and have security. Today it's not unusual to hear people in the trades that are sustaining 6 figure incomes, with lots of job security, and great benefits.
At a time when tech giants are offshoring any job they can, and relegating much of their US workforce to contingent staffing firms who provide workers on a project by project basis, is it any wonder that Joe the Plumber's job is starting to look more attractive than ever before?Joe the plu
