Yesterday, Lansing hosted the “Green Today, Jobs Tomorrow” conference, featuring such notables as President Obama’s advisor on green jobs Van Jones, and U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, to talk about the green economy and the jobs it has already created here and across the country, as well as the enormous potential the industry holds for the future. To coincide with that, the state released its first-ever scientific study on where we stand on green job creation – and the results are quite remarkable.

Here are some of the highlights from the Michigan Green Jobs Report 2009:

Michigan boasts 109,067 private sector green jobs: 96,767 direct green jobs (people directly involved in generating a firm’s green-related products or services) and 12,300 green support jobs (anyone from a janitor to an accountant whose job is created to serve direct green work).

Clean transportation and fuels is the largest green economy area in Michigan, comprising just over 40% of green jobs and reflecting Michigan’s automotive heritage. If Michigan succeeds in developing alternative fuel, hybrid and electric vehicles, this sector may grow significantly.

There is huge potential for growth throughout the green economy. Today, green jobs represent just 3% of Michigan’s overall private sector employment of 3.2 million.

Indeed, from 2005 to 2008, a sample of 358 green related firms added more than 2,500 jobs to Michigan’s economy, an employment expansion rate of 7.7% — compared to the total Michigan average of negative 5.4%.

Among the renewable energy production firms in that sample, the growth rate hit 30%. Renewable energy production, which today is the smallest green sector, may be the fastest growing.

The green economy appears to be a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity. Among our sample of 358 green-related firms, over 70 appeared to be newly created since 2005, accounting for nearly 600 jobs already.

Green jobs tend to pay well. Thirteen of the top 15 sectors of green employment have weekly wages above the overall private sector weekly average.

Green jobs encompass a wide range of occupations. Engineering and construction jobs are prominent, but many other jobs of all skill levels are required by the green economy.

Education and training are key for green\ employers. In multiple focus groups, employers emphasized the need for basics in math and reading with additional skills to be acquired on the – job or in school depending on the precise green job in question.

DELEG Deputy Director Andy Levin said the results of the study are prior to the state adopting its renewable portfolio standard, as well as other recent economic incentives such as the advanced battery legislation signed in January. Gongwer/MiTech News filed this report on the conference:

“It’s a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity,” Levin said of the sector. He said the results from the study are prior to the state adopting its renewable portfolio standard and other efforts to encourage renewable energy development.

“You are at ground zero of the new economy that will define the new century,” said Van Jones, President Barack Obama’s special advisor on green jobs, enterprise and innovation. “We’ll either create the jobs of the future in the industrial heartland or we’ll create no jobs at all.”

Jones said Obama’s primary focus in his environmental plan is creating jobs. “We finally have a president who understands we can have high economic performance protecting the environment,” Jones said. “Everything that we have to do to retrofit the country so we waste less energy …is a job.”

Granholm, in later remarks to the conference, said, “The growth trajectory is huge as long as the policy is right. The opportunity for us to lead the nation in being green is very bright.”

Jones particularly praised Granholm for her efforts to attract new battery production, an effort he said no other governor was undertaking. “It’s no advance if we go from importing oil from the Middle East to importing batteries from Asia.”

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis addressed the need for more job training, and announced that the federal government has released $4.1 million in National Emergency Grant funds to help with retraining efforts for displaced workers.

“Despite this tough economy, Gov. Granholm is ensuring that Michigan leads the way in this new green economy,” Secretary Solis said. “The work that is being done here is at the heart of our emerging green economy. These green jobs will guarantee a bright future for Michigan, and they will also ensure a bright future for the United States.”

To learn more about the No Worker Left Behind Green Jobs Initiative, click here.

To view the entire Green Jobs Report, please visit here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 9:46 am and is filed under Alternative Energy, Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.