Green-Collar Jobs in 2010

Blue-collar and white-collar are familiar jobs—from plumbers and builders to lawyers and stock traders. Now, the buzz is building for green-collar jobs, the millions of job opportunities created by the green economy. But just what are these green jobs? There are many existing jobs that will be re-purposed and expanded in the new green economy, and others that are entirely new occupations.



A recent report from the Center for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute proposed a $100 billion investment in green infrastructure spread out over two years. The study found that an investment like this will result in over 2 million new jobs in six areas: retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency, expanding mass transit and freight rail, constructing “smart” electrical grid transmission systems, wind power, solar power, and next-generation biofuels.

New York City is scheduled to have 1700 hybrid-electric buses on its roads by 2010. As gas prices rise and demand for mass transit increases, there will be a greater demand for new bus drivers, civil engineers, rail track layers, locomotive engineers, rail conductors, welders, and dispatchers trained in the new technology of mass transit and freight rail.