Report: Sacramento region loses fewer green jobs than other sectors

Publication Date
Author
Melanie Turner
Source
Sacramento Business Journal
Year Published
2012

The Sacramento region, the Bay Area and the San Diego region have shown the greatest resilience when it comes to retaining “green” jobs, according to a new report released late Tuesday.

Each recorded job losses in that segment of the economy of less than 2 percent between January 2009 and January 2010, while the state overall recorded 7 percent job losses in the sector over the same time period, according to the report.

According to the report produced by Next 10, a nonpartisan research group, the state’s green sector outperformed the overall economy by retaining a greater percentage of its workforce at the height of the recession.

Data in “2012 Many Shades of Green: California’s Shift to a Cleaner, More Productive Economy” show that from January 2009 to January 2010, the state’s overall economy registered job losses of 7 percent. Those losses are more than two times higher than the job losses tracked in the state’s “core green economy,” which saw a 3 percent loss in jobs, according to the report.

The report defines the core green economy as businesses involved in the clean-energy sector, including those that provide goods and/or services to conserve natural resources, and those that cut pollution, repurpose or recycle.

Over the long term, green jobs have also fared better, according to the report. Between 1995 and 2010, employment in green economy grew by 53 percent, while jobs in the wider economy grew by 12 percent.

“In tracking the growth of the state’s core green economy and the overall economy, we found that the global financial crisis and the mortgage crisis that caused our overall economy to go into a deep dive did not have as damaging an impact on the state’s core green economy,” F. Noel Perry, founder of Next 10, the nonpartisan research group that produces the report, said in a news release.

Other report highlights include:

               

Between 1995 and 2010, “green” employment expanded in the Sacramento area by 113 percent and in the Bay Area by 76 percent.

               

Manufacturing accounted for 27 percent of jobs in the sector, compared to 10 percent in the total economy. Manufacturing in the core green economy expanded by 1 percent in the shorter term, and by 53 percent between 1995 and January 2010.