A Rising Tide of Green Jobs
Dec. 10, 2008
Richard Kaplan--HispanicBusiness.com
|
|
|
|
Could a "green wave" lift the economy out of its current recession and if so, in what job categories will change take place?
According to the CleanTech Group, a member organization encompassing investors and firms that seek to enhance the growth of green industries across the globe, venture capital investment in green industries escalated in 2008. The third quarter, says CleanTech, "brought in $2.6 billion across 158 companies in North America, Europe, India and China, bringing the year-to-date investment to $6.6 billion."
Leading Hispanic-owned enterprises also are recognizing the profit potential in the green energy sector. MasTec, based in Coral Gables Florida, and currently number five on the Hispanic Business 500, announced in October the $200 million purchase of Wanzek Construction Inc. Wanzek is one of the nation's leading wind energy contractors, capable of providing end-to-end construction services to wind farm owners and developers.
About MasTec's expansion into the alternative energy business, CEO Jose Mas said, "With the acquisition of Wanzek, we are expanding our expertise in the wind energy and natural gas industries. We believe that energy independence will remain a long-term national priority and with MasTec's expertise in wind farm construction, natural gas and energy transmission, we will be a leading player in that effort."
Such efforts at retooling the economy should have a powerful effect on economic sectors currently suffering from the decline in the housing market and the crisis in the financial sector. "Millions of U.S. workers across a wide-range of occupations, states, and income levels will benefit from the project of defeating global warming and transforming the United States into a green economy," reports the researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts.
Construction Jobs Go Green
The green wave, says the UM research team, will most likely occur in the areas of building retrofitting, infrastructure development, the manufacture of energy-efficient automobiles, and the provision of new mass transit. Naturally, others include the formation of such alternative energy sources as wind, sun, biofuels, and nuclear reactors, along with the innovation and manufacturing of scores of smaller consumer products.
Those green growth industries are very much concentrated in construction and manufacturing, sectors that have been hurt deeply by the current economic downturn. According to Labor Department reports, the last year saw a sharp decline in the number of construction jobs, dropping from 9.5 million to 8.74 million employed workers or about 8 percent.
Coincidentally, U.S. Hispanics comprise a large share of construction workers -- 2.7 million or 25 percent -- and thus will benefit from any future green jobs wave. In the short term, because of the high percentage, the contraction in construction has hurt Hispanics severely. "Due mainly to a slump in the construction industry," the Pew Hispanic Research Center says, "the unemployment rate for Hispanics in the U.S. rose to 6.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008, well above the 4.7 percent rate for all non-Hispanics." And by the end of third quarter, those numbers had climbed to 7.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Source: HispanicBusiness.com (c) 2008. All rights reserved.
|
