Statistics from consultancy PwC have revealed that Scotland is once again leading the UK in the creation of green jobs.
PwC’s Green Jobs Barometer, which has been measuring the performance of the UK’s regions and sectors in creating green jobs over the past four years, shows that 5.6% of job adverts in Scotland were for jobs considered green, up from 4% in 2023. This is significantly better than the nationwide average, where 3.5% of advertised jobs were considered green, up from 2.3% in 2023 and 1.2% in 2021 when the barometer was first launched.
PwC defines green jobs as “roles that seek to either produce or provide environmentally friendly products and services, or adapt work processes to become more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.” This definition encompasses roles that support the green economy indirectly, such as environmental advisors or experts in environmental education.
Coming just behind Scotland in the green jobs race is Northern Ireland, where 4% of 2024 job adverts were for green roles (up from 2.4% in 2023), and London, where 3.7% of roles were green (up from 2.2% in 2023). At the bottom of the pack comes Wales, with 2.7% of roles advertised as green (up from 2.1% last year) and the North East of England, with just 2.4% of job openings being for green roles (up from 1.9%). However, as PwC notes, the poorest performing areas have shown positive improvement, with proportionate demand for green jobs almost doubling in these regions since the barometer was launched in 2021.
Scotland has topped the leaderboard for the fourth year running, and the Scottish green jobs market has tripled in size since the first barometer in 2021.
The share of job ads considered green has increased across almost every sector, with only public service, hospitality, and other service sectors not seeing growth in green jobs. The largest sector for green roles is professional, scientific, and technical activities, with 8.3% of total UK job adverts in this sector being for green roles – over 2.3 times larger than the 3.6% share recorded in the first barometer.
The construction sector comes second for proportion of green jobs, with 6.9% of all construction roles advertised being green. This sector has seen by far the largest growth in the proportion of job roles being green, with the number of green construction jobs growing by 62.8% since last year.
