Why the demand for 'green skills' is on the rise

As the transition to a green economy continues to grow, Sue Duke, VP of Global Public Policy & Economic Graph at LinkedIn, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss a new report from LinkedIn that shows a growing demand for workers with green skills.

Video transcript

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- The global shift toward a green economy is gaining momentum, and it could have a significant impact on the demand for skills in the labor market. LinkedIn has released its annual global green skills report that provides insight on the latest work trends and environmental sustainability. More companies are looking for green talent.

Within the last year, 22.4% of job postings required at least one green skill. And while there is a strong demand to hire workers with some sort of environmental knowledge, people are not developing these skills at a fast enough rate to meet global climate targets. For more, we're joined by Sue Duke, Vise President of Global Public Policy and Economic Graph at LinkedIn. Sue, first of all, what is a green skill? Tell us what that entails.

SUE DUKE: A green skill is a skill that directly combats the effects of climate change. So it is a skill that is either taking out pollution or preserving natural resources. Think of skills like water preservation, sustainability manager, or energy efficiency. They are all the kind of skills that are driving that impact towards preserving natural resources and combating the effects of climate change out there.

- And so, how many more of these positions are we expecting to come about to come online within so many different employment situations over the next couple of years?

SUE DUKE: This trend is very clear. It is growing all the time, and we expect it to increase in the months and years ahead. When we look back over the past five years, we can see clearly that jobs requiring at least one growth skill have grown 9% every year.

And the biggest jump that we've seen so far was last year. Last year, we saw over 20% increase in jobs requiring green skills. And let's not forget that was the year when we typically saw hiring and activity slow down in the wider economy. Not when it came to demand for green skills. There we saw that trend speeding up and that demand increasing all the time. We expect the same to continue as we move forward.

- It's so interesting, Sue, because we talk so much lately about AI, right. And that there's going to be this big need for AI workers. We talk much less about this area. So it does seem that there is a skills gap as well.

What does that stem from? Is it that are people not studying this stuff? Is it just that there's not a high enough rate of people who are studying it and coming out of school with it or reskilling to focus on these areas? What's the what's the cause of it?

SUE DUKE: This is a very significant shift for the economy. We are talking about transforming the entire economy and putting it on a more sustainable footing if we're going to reach those 2030 and on to those 2050 targets. And that's not going to happen overnight. First off, one of the drivers is the demand is just so strong for these green skills. We currently have only one in eight workers with green skills.

And their ability to meet that demand is just not there. That demand is growing all the time. And it's important to remember that that demand, of course, that's coming from the green sector, but we also see it coming from across all industries.

So some of the fastest greening roles out there are jobs you just wouldn't think of as green jobs. Fleet managers, compliance managers, health workers, data scientists, they are all roles that are going green every day. And it is very, very challenging for workers to keep pace with that demand. We have got to start investing in green skills and upskilling workers so that they're going to be able to take advantage of the opportunity that this transition presents.

- Does having green skills mean that someone can get paid more?

SUE DUKE: It means that your future employability looks really, really positive. So just in the past year, we saw that demand for green skills grow 15%. We saw demand slow and slacken elsewhere. We also see that workers with green skills are 30% more likely to get hired than workers who don't. So investing in green skills, investing in this area, is not only going to be good for you, it's going to be good for the planet too.

- What's interesting here is, I believe, your survey found that in all of the countries you looked at this was a common theme. That there was an increase in demand for these types of skills. Are there, though, differences, right, are there things that workers in the US need to know versus workers in, say, Ireland need to know about the differences in demand?

SUE DUKE: We do see variation. Of course, we see this demand coming in all sectors across all countries. But we also see variation in the supply of workers. Auto is a great example. Currently, the supply of auto workers with green skills in the US is about half the rate that we see in a country like the UK.

The good news is that that supply is growing all of the time. So in the past six years, we have seen autoworkers workers who gained green skills increase six-fold. And what's very clear is that they're responding to a very, very strong and growing demand out there. Recruitment for auto workers with green skills shot up 300% in that period.

So we know that that demand is going to keep growing. The best thing that workers can do is put themselves in a spot where they can avail of these opportunities. And the single best way to do that is acquire and start applying green skills.

- We continue to hear more about how there is going to be artificial intelligence that's weaved into the fabric of an organization's operations. And that it could replace some roles, but it could improve-- increase productivity, at the same time. And you're going to have some roles that work in tandem with artificial intelligence or augmented intelligence, however you want to classify it, is that a green skill? Just the ability to work with, perhaps, something that is increasing productivity with the company?

SUE DUKE: Any skill that can leverage a technology that allows us to take pollution out and preserve natural resources is a green skill. And we typically see that workers with a background in science, technology, and engineering are breaking into those green skills at a faster rate than those who don't.

So we are increasingly going to see application of technology helping us meet our climate targets. And our job is to get workers those skills in tech and in green to make sure that technology and workers can do just that.

- Really great to speak with you today. Sue Duke, VP of Global Public Policy and Economic Graph at LinkedIn. Thanks so much.

SUE DUKE: Pleasure. Thank you for having me on.

- Absolutely.