Our 2022 Global Green Skills Report
Today, we will release our first ever report on the state of the green economy. The 2022 Global Green Skills Report shines a light on how and where people are contributing to the transition to a green economy, where gaps are emerging, and what policymakers, companies and individuals can do to help fight the climate crisis.
The Global Green Skills Report comes at a time when the global economy, and the world is experiencing a Great Reshuffle, a historic transformation in how people work, where they work, and even why they work. In parallel, the world faces the urgent need to transition to a green economy to address the threat of climate change.
The Global Green Skills Report will officially launch in Brussels today (4 p.m. CEST/ 7 a.m. PST), with the event broadcast on LinkedIn Live. Joining the discussion with Sue Duke, Head of Global Public Policy at LinkedIn, is Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.
“The scale of change required to achieve a green economy and meet ambitious EU and global climate change targets, means we need to think about sustainable skills in all jobs and all sectors,” said Sue Duke, Head of Global Public Policy at LinkedIn. “LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report provides actionable insights that can be a catalyst for the jobs and skill transformations, which are vital for building the next generation of green talent. We applaud EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel’s work to put green skills on the top of the agenda, and LinkedIn will play our part to realise the EU’s ambition to provide Europe’s youth with a clean and green future.”
Key insights from the report:
Green talent rising: green talent increased from 9.6% in 2015 to 13.3% in 2021 - a cumulative growth rate of 38.5%.
Talent outpacing supply: globally, job postings requiring green skills grew at roughly 8% annually since 2015, the share of green talent grew at roughly 6% annually in the same period.
U.S. renewables industry: in the last five years, the number of renewables & environment jobs in the U.S has increased by 237% in stark contrast to the 19% increase for oil & gas jobs. At this pace, we are predicting that the renewables & environment sector will outnumber oil & gas in total jobs on our platform by 2023.
Automotive industry: in the European automotive industry, data shows that the share of green talent has been increasing by 11.3% annually for the past five years, exhibiting one of the highest growth rates in green talent among all manufacturing sectors.
Fashion industry: sustainable fashion was the fastest-growing green skill globally, with an average growth rate of 90.6% from 2016–2020. In the EU, the share of green talent in apparel and fashion grew at 5.8% annually between 2015 and 2021, surpassing North America (4.4%).
Transferable skills: traditional fashion jobs, such as fashion designers, stylists and merchandisers, are increasingly applying sustainable fashion skills. Workers skilled in sustainable fashion are also active across many other industries, e.g. media and communications, design, arts, manufacturing, corporate services, non-profit organisations, software and IT services.
Greening roles: the fastest-growing greening roles were compliance manager (19%), facilities manager (11%) and technical sales representative (8%).
Growing green jobs: the fastest-growing green jobs were sustainability manager (30%), wind turbine technician (24%) and solar consultant (23%).
Global average: the average job in the U.S., UK and Australia uses two to three times more green skills than the global average.
Green millennials: green talent increased in all age groups but fastest in Millennials, with 13% year-on-year growth globally, between 2015–2021.
Green gender gap: globally, in 2021 there were 62 women for every 100 men considered green talent — this number remains unchanged since 2015.
About the 2022 Global Green Skills Report:
The 2022 Global Green Skills Report represents the world seen through LinkedIn’s Economic Graph, drawn from the anonymised and aggregated profile information of LinkedIn’s 800 million members around the world. As such, it is influenced by how members choose to use the platform, which can vary based on professional, social and regional culture, as well as overall site availability and accessibility. In publishing these insights from LinkedIn's Economic Graph, we want to provide accurate statistics while ensuring our members’ privacy. As a result, all data show aggregated information for the corresponding period following strict data quality thresholds that prevent disclosing any information about specific individuals.