Who’s fit for the low-carbon transition? Emerging skills and wage gaps in job ad data

Saussay, Aurelien ORCID: 0000-0003-4786-0019, Sato, Misato ORCID: 0000-0002-9978-9595, Vona, Francesco and O’Kane, Layla (2022) Who’s fit for the low-carbon transition? Emerging skills and wage gaps in job ad data. CCCEP Working Paper (406). Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, London, UK.

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Abstract

As governments worldwide increase their commitments to tackling climate change, the number of low-carbon jobs is expected to grow rapidly. Here we provide evidence on the characteristics of low-carbon jobs in the US using comprehensive online job postings data between 2010-2019. By accurately identifying low-carbon jobs and comparing them to similar jobs in the same occupational group, we show that low-carbon jobs differ from high-carbon or generic jobs in a number of important ways. Low-carbon jobs have higher skill requirements across a broad range of skills, especially technical ones. However, the wage premium for low-carbon jobs has declined over time and the geographic overlap between low- and high-carbon jobs is limited. Overall, our findings suggest there will be labour reallocation costs as workers transition into low-carbon activities. This suggests a role for targeted public investments in re-skilling to minimise transitional costs and ensure a workforce fit to deliver a rapid transition.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL:	https://www.cccep.ac.uk/
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Authors
Divisions:	Grantham Research Institute
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Date Deposited:	04 Nov 2022 15:12
Last Modified:	01 Apr 2024 07:59
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/117254

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