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The environmental transition will create 30 million jobs by 2030, globally. This is stated in the report “Building Competitive Advantage with A People-First Green Business Transformation” by ManpowerGroup, which involved around 40 thousand employers and over 5,000 people in 41 countries. If these are the prospects that will generate the ambitious emissions reduction targets, however, it will not be easy to meet them because there is a lack of green talent and skills to achieve environmental objectives.
Green hiring in 70% of companies
According to the report, 70% of companies in all sectors plan to hire talent in the field of sustainability, the so-called “green jobs”. The strongest hiring intentions (81%) are in the energy and public services sector, followed by the information technology (77%) and financial services (75%) sectors. The most sought-after green talents are in production (36%), operations and logistics (31%), IT (30%), sales and marketing (27%), engineering (26%), administration (25%) and human resources (25%).
Europe and the retraining of 60% of professionals
If we look at Europe alone, over 1.7 million new green jobs could be created by 2040 thanks to the development of green molecules, such as hydrogen and biofuels, as part of the energy transition. The transition will require the retraining and updating of 60% of professionals to equip them with the skills necessary to meet the growing green demand. Among the countries with the greatest skills shortages are Italy, Spain and Germany which will have to put workforce mapping tools and public-private partnerships are in place to train people. Furthermore, women’s participation in green economy jobs is increasing, but remains below 40% in most countries. The exceptions are Spain and Italy, where women are expected to hold more than 50% of direct green jobs by 2040.
Green positions open in Italy
Maintenance technicians, infrastructure and civil engineers and system designers are in great demand in the photovoltaic sector, where maintenance workers and system installers are also strategic. In the automotive/electric vehicle assembly sector, the most sought after are maintenance technicians, as well as technicians dedicated to quality control and product engineers. In Italy, Manpower has over 2,000 green positions open in the areas with the greatest green impact: energy efficiency and electricity, photovoltaics, assembly of electric vehicles in the automotive sector.
The skills scarcity
In the face of growing demand, however, green skills are in short supply, to the point that 94% of employers globally recognize that they do not have the professionals needed in their company to achieve their ESG objectives and three quarters (75%) of they say they have difficulty finding talent with the skills they seek. Among the top barriers cited by companies trying to make progress in the green transition are sourcing qualified candidates (44%), creating effective reskilling programs (39%) and identifying transferable skills (36%). «Companies, to promote sustainability and equip themselves with the green profiles they increasingly need, must keep people at the centre. It is essential that efforts towards green technologies are accompanied by adequate investments in upskilling and reskilling, retraining and skills updating”, says Daniela Caputo, Marketing, Communication and Innovation Director of ManpowerGroup.