Hawai i's Green Workforce A Baseline Assessment December 2010

In contrast, industries that contribute the least
vacancies in the green labor market are Mining,
Transportation and Warehousing, Information,
Finance and Insurance, Real Estate and Rental and
Leasing, Management of Companies & Enterprises,
and Accommodation and Food Services (Table
11). This might suggest that the greening of these
industries is mature or has not yet fully begun. In
particular, given the limited opportunities for the
excavation of minerals and metals in Hawai’i, we
would not expect to see a large number of green job
vacancies in the Mining sector. From an operational
perspective, low vacancy levels in functional areas
such as leadership (Management), capital (Finance)
and risk mitigation (Insurance) are likely because: (1)
these industries account for fewer jobs relative to the
overall economy; (2) these jobs are less likely to be
recognized as “green” given that they cover a wider
spectrum of administrative and generalist activities;
and (3) some of the positions may be of a broader
nature (e.g., chief operating officer or chairman of the
board).
Vacancies by Core Green Areas
When the data are assessed by core green areas,
most of the job vacancies appear within Generating
Clean, Renewable, Sustainable Energy and Natural
Environmentally Friendly Production. This is
particularly the case in O‘ahu, with 219 vacancies in
the category. Ninety-five of the County of Hawai‘i’s
199 green vacancies are in the Natural Production
category (Figure 9).
Reviewing job vacancies across firm size, mediumsize
worksites account for substantially more green
vacancies than small and large worksites. In the
Generating Clean, Renewable, Sustainable Energy
category, for example, data show that medium-size
firms hold 163 green vacancies. Medium-size firms
also account for the majority (98) of vacancies within
the Natural Environmentally Friendly Production
category, representing 87 percent of the vacancies in
this category (Figure 10). Interestingly, almost all of
these vacancies also originated within the Agriculture,
Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting category.
Figure 10. Green Job Vacancies by Core Areas & Worksite
Size
Vacancies by Occupation
Table 12 depicts present estimated green job vacancies
by occupational title relative to the total estimated
green jobs in 2010 and those projected in 2012. The
top-seven occupations -- Sales Engineers, Solar
Photovoltaic Installers, Graders and Sorters of
Agricultural Products, First-Line Supervisors and
Managers of Production and Operating Workers,
Electricians, Retail Salespersons, and Janitors and
Cleaners -- include 50 percent of the total green job
vacancies.
The three occupations of Sales Engineers, Solar
Energy System Engineers, and First-Line Supervisors
each have large numbers of vacancies, including
relative to total current jobs. Their vacancies are
between one to two times their total current green
jobs. These figures may be a result of both an
anticipated expansion of these occupations and the
lack of a skilled and qualified labor pool from which
to fill the positions.
Examination of the 2012 projected green jobs figures
is instructional in showing change for each of the
three occupational categories. The data shows that in
all three occupations, projected job increases ranged
from 196 percent to over 485 percent. These findings
suggest that the present high vacancy rates in these
jobs may not only be a function of lack of qualified
potential employees, but also of expected expansion of
green jobs in the near future.
Hawaiÿi’s Green Workforce: A Baseline Assessment 25