So-called green jobs accounted for 2.7 percent of Hawaii’s total workforce in 2010, the 15th-highest percentage nationally.
Of the 586,772 people employed across the state in 2010, 15,593 had jobs in which they produced goods or services that “benefit the environment or conserve natural resources,” according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released last week.
Hawaii tied with Minnesota, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Iowa in the percentage of jobs classified as green. Vermont topped the list at 4.4 percent, while Florida ranked last at 1.3 percent. Nationally, 2.4 percent of all jobs were considered green.
To qualify as green, an employee had to be involved in at least one of the following areas: renewable energy, energy efficiency, pollution reduction, greenhouse gas reduction, recycling, organic agriculture, sustainable forestry or environmental conservation.
Growth of solar panel installations and other renewable energy projects in Hawaii are helping to partially offset weakness in construction jobs, said state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations director Dwight Takamine. In a recent survey of photovoltaic installers in Hawaii, 60 percent said they had increased their workforce in the past 12 months. Another one-third of those surveyed said they planned to boost hiring in the next 12 months, Takamine said.
In 2009 the state launched the Hawai‘i Green Jobs Initiative. The program, funded with federal stimulus money, connects employers and job seekers. The website (bit.ly/vw7Sma) also provides information on green jobs and careers and local training programs and providers.
“Clearly, workforce development is the area we are focusing on,” said Takamine. “We’ve formed partnerships with the community colleges to help our workers develop new skill sets.” Takamine said more than 1,300 workers have been retrained for green jobs since the program began.
The BLS study counted green jobs in 14 industry sectors ranging from construction to professional services. BLS researchers identified businesses and government agencies providing green goods and services and used a formula to estimate the actual number of green jobs at each establishment.
The BLS researchers said they took steps to avoid overestimating the number of jobs classified as green.
“Not every activity or product in the industries within the GGS (green goods and services) scope is considered green,” according to the report. “Only the employment associated with production of green goods and services within these selected industries is counted.”
The sector with the largest number of green jobs in Hawaii was transportation and warehousing, with 3,932 positions, according to the study. Professional, scientific and technical services was next with 2,733 jobs. Administrative and waste services was third with 1,450 jobs, followed by construction with 1,273 positions.
Success Advertising, which runs the state’s largest job fair three times a year at the Neal Blaisdell Center, last May began designating a special section at the event for green employers. At the most recent job fair there were more than a dozen employers recruiting in the green-jobs section, including Hawaiian Electric Co., the Solar Training Institute and Reynolds Recycling.
