Green Jobs are on the Rise

How many people work in the metro area and how many of those jobs are considered ‘Green’?

  • 2.2 million jobs in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area (BLS)
    • 47k Green Jobs in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area (E2)

How many people work in the state and how many of those jobs are considered ‘Green’?

  • 3.96 million jobs in Washington state (BLS)
    • 85k Green Jobs in Washington state (E2)

How many people work in the country and how many of those jobs are considered ‘Green’?

  • 152.5 million people employed full-time in USA in February 2020 (St. Louis Fed)

How many people are employed worldwide and how many of those jobs are considered ‘Green’?

  • 3.3 billion people employed worldwide in 2019 (ILO)
    • 12 million Green Jobs worldwide (IRENA)

How many ‘green jobs’ are there in Seattle? In Washington, Oregon, and California? In the US? In the world? To find the answer to these questions and more, we pored over dozens of peer-reviewed studies, looked at data from different governmental organizations, and sifted through reports from nonprofits and other organizations.

Based on the 9 studies that we focused on, we were able to draw the following conclusions.

There are…

  • 12 million Green Jobs worldwide
  • 3.5 million Green Jobs in the USA
  • 653k Green Jobs in the West (California, Oregon, and Washington)
  • 85k Green Jobs in Washington state
  • 55k Green Jobs in Oregon
  • 47k Green Jobs in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metro area

For context, there are…

  • 3.3 billion people employed worldwide as of 2019
  • 152.5 million people employed full time in the USA as of February 2020
  • 25.57 million people employed in the Western US (California, Oregon, and Washington)
  • 3.96 million jobs in Washington state
  • 2.2 million jobs in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metro area

While comparing number across reports can be difficult, we made a concerted effort to compare reports with similar methodologies to get as accurate an estimate as possible.

For more information on the reports we used, their methodologies, and more interesting employment facts, click here.

Note: The 2020 edition of the US Energy and Employment Report is available here .

COVID-19 Update: Curious to see how the pandemic impacted these job numbers? Click here to find out