Survey Finds More Than 50,000 Green Jobs in Oregon

A new report has estimated that Oregon was home to 51,402 green jobs in 2008. The report, The Greening of Oregon’s Workforce: Jobs, Wages, and Training , was based on a survey of employers and was produced by the Oregon Employment Department.

About half of Oregon’s green jobs were found to be in the construction, retail, and waste services industries. A little more than a quarter of the state’s green jobs workforce worked as carpenters, farm workers, truck drivers, hazardous materials removal workers, and landscaping or grounds keeping personnel.

Green jobs in Oregon paid slightly higher than other jobs on average. The average hourly wage for green jobs in Oregon was $22.61. Green jobs in Oregon prove to be relatively accessible to the average worker.

Close to two-thirds of the state’s green jobs required no more than a high school education, although those that required higher education did pay better. Only a third of green jobs in Oregon required a special license or certificate. The number of green jobs in Oregon is expected to rise by 14 percent between 2008 and 2010.

A green job was defined as a job providing services or producing products in the following areas:

1. Increasing energy efficiency

2. Producing renewable energy

3. Preventing, reducing, or mitigating environmental degradation

4. Cleaning up and restoring the natural environment

5. Providing education, consulting, policy promotion, accreditation, trading and offsets, or similar services supporting the above This article was contributed by David Anderson, author of The Green Jobs Report