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Green job growth strongest in red states
Republican-leaning states post stronger clean tech job growth than blue states.
Thu, Sep 13 2012 at 6:48 PM
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Photo: vaxomatic/Flickr
When I think of a green jobs haven, I think of Democrat-leaning states like California. Evidently, these assumptions are wrong. A September 2012 report from DBL Investors reveals that clean tech job growth is strongest in traditionally Republican states like Alaska and North Dakota.
Nancy Pfund and Michael Lazar published the report, Red, White & Green: The True Colors of America’s Clean Tech Jobs, and the results truly surprised me. A map of the 10 states with the fastest growth in green jobs between 2003 and 2010 only has two blue states, Hawaii and New York.
10 States with Fastest Growth in Green Jobs
- Alaska – 98 percent (Republican)
- North Dakota – 58 percent (Republican)
- Hawaii – 56 percent (Democrat)
- Wyoming – 53 percent (Republican)
- New Mexico – 50 percent (swing state)
- Nebraska – 49 percent (swing state)
- North Carolina – 49 percent (swing state)
- Nevada – 48 percent (swing state)
- New York – 48 percent (Democrat)
- Colorado – 47 percent (swing state)
Okay, so job growth is stronger in Republican-leaning or swing states. What about the states that have the largest share of green jobs as a percentage of total jobs? Surely this will be filled with blue. Again, I was wrong. This map includes six Republican states, three Democrat states, one swing state and the Democrat-leaning District of Columbia. Again, red states dominate the clean tech jobs map.
Pfund and Lazar’s research found that “green jobs are growing the most quickly in some of the smallest and reddest states.” Go figure!
Download the study: Red, White & Green: The True Colors of America’s Clean Tech Jobs (PDF).
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Very misleading MNN! "Republican leaning states....). While you do mention once this is a 2 year old report, you don't mention the numbers of jobs, just percentages, and of course since it's election time you bring out this historical report (although clearly the authors just brought it out as well as a September 2012 news headline). Alaska went up 8000 jobs to 16000, whoopee. California has 318000 green jobs. Go figure? No people. Read the report as MNN has some alterior motive.
Thanks for the comment observer1 but this report is not two years old, the data set used is two years old but the report was just published this month. Often times research is conducted using data from years prior to the actual research date due to the time consuming step of aggregating data.
Also, no ulterior motives here, just an interesting report for those of us that follow green jobs news.