Indian livelihoods turn less green! Sharp decline in hiring green workforce over the last five years compared to the global average

• The new Linkedin Green Skills Report 2022 revealed that the green workforce is rising worldwide — from 9.6% in 2015 to 13.3% in 2021.
• Green skills intensity must increase in every sector globally to build the supply needed while meeting the climate goals.
• Manufacturing and construction are leading recruiters of green talent in India.

Amid the ‘Great Resignation’ in the job market all over the world, there is an urgent need to shift our focus to a greener economy to meet the global climate targets. This mandates transformative changes in the jobs and skills of the 21st century.

A recent Linkedin Green Skills Report 2022 revealed that the green workforce is rising worldwide — from 9.6% in 2015 to 13.3% in 2021. But the rise is not uniform, with countries like India struggling to keep up.

What are green jobs and where does India stand?

Green jobs are decent livelihood opportunities that contribute towards preserving the environment, fighting climate change, helping energy transitions, and improving raw materials efficiency. Whereas, simply put, green skills are the knowledge, abilities, values, and attitudes needed to live in, develop, and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society.

In the Union Budget of 2022, the central government stressed the urgency to generate green jobs in India. And India does rank high in terms of green skills intensity which ranks countries based on the use of green skills against the average job globally.

Among the 25 countries assessed, India stands at the 5th position after the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, with nearly 1.7 times more green skills than the global job average. Green skills intensity must increase in every sector globally to build the supply needed while meeting the climate goals, says the LinkedIn report.

Decline in green hiring in India

In 2021, when the hiring rebounded strongly after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the share of green jobs fell remarkably across the globe, including in counties like the United States, Europe, Australia, China, India, New Zealand, and Singapore.

In India, however, the share of green hiring has declined ever since 2016, while in China, it has grown. Non-green jobs accounted for a greater share of Indian hiring in 2021 than in 2016, while the share of green potential jobs all declined over the same period. By 2021, 56% of all hiring in India was into non-green jobs — 13% higher than in China and 6% higher than the global figure.

On the other hand, the share of green talent in the agricultural sector particularly has been increasing consistently since 2015, particularly in four countries — India, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore — with high green skills intensity.

Growth in the share of green talent by country and agricultural sector between 2015 and 2021

Source: Linkedin Green Skills Report 2022

Currently, the growth in the demand for workers with green skills has outpaced the growth in the supply of green talent. While job postings requiring green skills grew by 8% annually over the past five years, the share of green talent has grown by roughly 6% annually in the same period globally.

According to the report, manufacturing and construction are leading recruiters of green talent in India, while safety managers were India’s second-fastest-growing green job between 2016 and 2021.

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