California's 'green' economy outperforms
A report on California’s “green” economy says jobs in cleantech, energy efficiency, recycling and ecologically friendly manufacturing have boomed while the overall economy has shrunk.
Employment in “California’s Core Green Economy” grew 53 percent from 1995 to 2010, says the report, while jobs in the wider economy grew just 12 percent in that period.
During the Great Recession, from January 2009 to January 2010, California employment fell by 7 percent, but in these environmental sectors jobs fell by just 3 percent. It is important to remember, though, that hundreds of millions of dollars of federal stimulus money went into the green sector during the last few years.
Of course, the green economy is a tiny fraction of California’s overall economy — less than 1 percent of jobs. In 1995, 110,800 people worked in these types of jobs, and that figure rose to 174,800 in 2009 before dropping to 169,800 in 2010.
The period covered by the report also misses 2011, when Fremont solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 people. Solyndra alone had gotten more than $500 million in loan guarantees from the U.S. government.
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