Green jobs suffer slow growth in Manchester

A new report found that green industries are growing at just half the rate of the UK average.

Joblift, a meta search job seeking engine, found that jobs in renewable energy industries in the UK are increasing by 1% monthly, lagging behind the UK average job growth of 2%.

London has been home to almost a fifth of all green job vacancies since last September. Manchester, in contrast, only shared 3% of the green job market.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, admitted to The Mancunion that Manchester’s current renewable energy goals were not “ambitious enough.”

Burnham recently announced a Green Summit which aims to move up Labour’s 2050 carbon neutrality goal by up to 20 years.

During the summit, a panel of experts and Manchester stakeholders will determine strategies to make Manchester the first city in the UK to achieve carbon neutrality.

The Councillor for Stockport, Alex Ganotis, is leading the agenda alongside Burnham. Speaking to The Mancunion, Ganotis specified that green jobs were a particular subject of discussion for the Green Summit.

“[Something] that we’re beginning thinking about in terms of this summit, is actually what are the green jobs of the future — because I imagine, that’s one of the key concerns of young people, especially in education.”

The Councillor expressed “concern” about Manchester generating enough “jobs to keep [students] there.” He emphasised the importance for the summit to answer the question: “What do we think the jobs of the future will be that are sustainable, [and] what skills will they require?”

Joblift’s analysis of the UK’s green sector revealed that solar energy is the fastest-growing green industry, with a whopping 22% increase in job vacancies monthly — 11 times the UK average.

Bioenergy, however, advertises the most positions in total, occupying 9% of all green job postings. Solar power accounts for 7% of open positions.

As well as slow total job growth in the sector, Joblift found that vacancies in renewable energy are harder to fill. Green sector vacancies remain active for an average of 18 days, 3 days longer than the UK average.