With new and emerging technologies, shifts in employment and changes in the workforce are occurring across the world. Employment shifts driven by economic transformation occur at three different levels: (i) across sectors (or industries); (ii) across enterprises within the same or similar sector (industry); and (iii) within enterprises. The speed and the amplitude of job creation and loss across these three levels determine the effects on the number of jobs as well as income.
One of the key challenges facing policymakers in transforming their economies is creating decent and meaningful employment. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), over 600 million new jobs would be needed in the next 10 years. This paper highlights employment opportunities and key challenges in a transition to a green economy and suggests what policy measures need to be put in place to ensure that newly created jobs can become decent jobs.
The greening of the labour market will create new opportunities for workers, but also new risks that could undermine political support for green growth policies. Accordingly, labour market and skills policy should also seek to maximise the benefits of green growth for workers while assuring that unavoidable adjustment costs are shared fairly. This report aims to provide guidance for how best labour market and skill development policy can contribute to a fast, efficient and fair transition to a low carbon and resource efficient economy, particularly in developed countries.
Sustainable construction provides opportunities to address and alleviate several challenges and needs currently experienced in Gaza, including the increasing housing demand, limited availability of construction materials, insufficient energy and water provision, inadequate sanitation, as well as severe unemployment. The assessment analyses the feasibility, opportunities and challenges relating to sustainable construction in relation to the above mentioned needs and explores ways to promote green jobs.
This issue of the International Journal of Labour Research focuses on the question of whether the jobs that are emerging in the efforts to reach sustainable development can be described as “decent”. A series of case studies is presented which demonstrates that this seems to be far from the case. While these results remain very partial, this should be seen as an important reminder that “green” employment is not decent by definition and that like in any other sector, green jobs require careful stewardship from public authorities to ensure that workers are able to exercise their rights. This is all the more the case given the central role government policy plays in creating the enabling conditions for these industries to emerge and thrive.
This journal issue includes case studies on Korea, China and South Africa.
Green Growth examines the impact of wind energy on jobs and the economy in the EU. The wind energy industry increased its contribution to the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 33% between 2007 and 2010. In 2010, the industry’s growth was twice that of the EU’s GDP overall, with the sector contributing €32 billion to an EU economy in slowdown. Contents: The sector created 30% more jobs from 2007 to 2010 to reach nearly 240,000, while EU unemployment rose by 9.6% . By 2020, there should be 520,000 jobs in the sector. The sector was a net exporter of €5.7 billion worth of goods and services in 2010. The sector avoided €5.71 billion of fuel costs in 2010. The sector invested 5% of its spending in R&D – three times more than the EU average. Wind turbine manufacturers commit around 10% of their total turnover to R&D.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet are increasingly viewed as a vital infrastructure for all sectors of the economy. Already, employment in the ICT industry and employment of ICT specialist skills each accounts for up to 5% of total employment in OECD countries and ICT intensive-users account for more than 20% of all workers. In addition, the emerging "green" economy is a "smarter" economy that has increased demand for ICT-skilled jobs not only in the ICT sector, but more rapidly across the wider non-ICT economy. The further creation of new jobs can only occur, however, if the right mix of skills and competences are available in the labour market. Shortages of required ICT-related skills have been observed in some OECD countries, and this is particularly true for skills related to green ICTs.