Dublin, March 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “The Green Skills Gap 2025: Forecasts Key Workplace Demographic and Recruitment Changes Up to 2030” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
New research and an associated survey finds that the race to net zero will falter should the increasing gap between green jobs and green skills not be addressed, and with governments seemingly failing or unable to act, it will fall to businesses to respond.
The latest edition of this annual research report finds that green skills vacancies will soar to 241 million by 2030, up from just 67 million this year. However green skills adoption will not meet demand, growing at just 60% over the next 5 years, compared with 260% growth in green jobs. This poses severe implications for key industries and future workforce recruitment. Amongst the sectors most at risk are construction, transport & logistics, and manufacturing, with governments and industry organisations urged to act now by implementing training and upskilling programmes.
A notable global variation in the skills gap, something which will only expand, will see re-location of workers as they move to where demand is, thus some markets risk a ‘brain-drain’ and loss of green skilled individuals. The research also uncovered a ‘green skills shyness’, where workers aren’t willing or are unaware of openly displaying their green credentials, this practice risks masking skills proliferation and could see skilled workers miss out on employment opportunities, or employers place unnecessary expenditure on training.
Lauren Foye, the lead analyst commented: “We believe that this trend could be due either to individuals being unaware of how critical green skills are, fearing they will be accused of ‘greenwashing’, or unaware of the importance in promoting their industry recognised qualifications. For example, our research found that workers in the construction sector actively list health and safety qualifications, yet there’s very little about retrofitting or environmental compliance even though these green skills will be critical for a transition towards a climate-friendly built environment”.
Key Features
The drive for the global community – including national governments, businesses, and organisations, to address the environmental impact of fossil fuel use is altering the way in which many industries function. These new regulatory and technological requirements will change the way we work, and thus the skills needed to succeed. The worrying findings at present are that the demand for green skills is set to rapidly outpace the number of skilled workers.
Now in its second year, this 31,000-word report forecasts key workplace demographic and recruitment changes up to 2030, and examines the following:
- Industry focus & analysis: An industry level study of how the requirements of the green transition are influencing the skills and technology requirements of organisations as they tread the path to sustainability and net zero. The key industries reviewed are:
- Agriculture
- Energy & mining
- Construction
- Education
- Finance
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Retail
- Real estate
- Travel
- Entertainment & recreation
- Transport and logistics
- Information & communication
- Professional, scientific & technical
- Other
- Global green jobs legislation analysis: A clarification of the definition of green jobs and an evaluation of the global, regional and national level governmental mechanisms which are driving their growth. Key mechanisms in focus include but are not limited to:
- UN sustainable development goals
- The European green deal and green jobs agenda
- French skills investment plan
- Germany’s ‘Federal Government’s Skilled Labour Strategy’
- Japan’s ‘Green Growth Strategy through Achieving Carbon Neutrality in 2050’
- Green skills in the workplace survey: survey of US (United States) adults aged between 18 and 65 to understand both prevalence of, and attitudes towards, green skills. The data includes a quantitative assessment of the education of the group as well as ranking the importance of different organisational climate credentials and workplace culture components. Key takeaways focus on:
- The expectations that workers have of their employer both in terms of climate credentials and workplace culture
- The most crucial aspects of an organisation that will result in the retention of talent
- The green skills mix of the workforce and how it compares to organisational need
- Global green skills gap forecast: A proprietary top-down population forecast that projects the working population and the proportion of it that possesses green skills. It moves further to predict both the growth in green jobs and green skilled employees. The disparity between the two predicts how the global green skills gap will change in the coming 5 years. The forecast includes industry data to the same granularity as our industry focus and analysis and also includes regional projections (North America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Russia & Eastern Europe, Middle East & North Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa) as well as projections for 14 key economies (Canada, United States, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, UK, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Russia)
Key Questions Answered
- How is the green transition going to impact industries on a global, regional and national level?
- What legislative mechanisms are playing a part in the development of green skills around the globe?
- What is the current state of the green skills gap and how will it change in the next five years?
- What role does green talent have in bridging the skills gap?
- How can an organisation attract and retain green talent?
Data and Forecast
The forecast suite is made up of more than 145 tables and 22,900 data points and includes 5-year projections for:
- Working population
- Total number of people in employment
- Total number of people in full time employment
- Number of occupied green job roles
- Number of advertised green job roles
- The green skills gap (as a percentage)
Each data set includes regional level data of:
- North America
- Western Europe
- Asia Pacific
- Latin America
- Russia & Eastern Europe
- Middle East & North Africa
- Sub-Saharan Africa
And national level data of:
- Canada
- United States
- France
- Italy
- Germany
- Norway
- Sweden
- UK
- China
- India
- Japan
- South Korea
- Brazil
- Russia
Companies Featured
- Adecco Group
- Barefoot College
- Barrat developments PLC
- BetterUp
- BRC
- CATL
- Currys
- Deloitte
- DHL
- Giobert
- Greggs
- Hongping
- HP
- IEA
- ILO
- IRENA
- Jaguar Land Rover
- JOHCM
- John Lewis Group
- Leeds University
- Make UK
- McKinsey and Company
- MSC Cruises
- NHS England
- OECD
- Plymouth University
- Skyline Taskforce
- SM Foundation
- The United Nations
- United Nations Industrial Development Organisation
- University of Exeter
- WEF
- WWF
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kbioi1
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- Total Green Skills Vacancies in 2030: 241 Million, Split by 7 Key Regions (%)
