With the revolution of clean energy and sustainable practices across the globe, the demand for green jobs has grown 31% in May 2022, according to new data.
Monster.com data indicates that there are close to half a million jobs, directly or indirectly related to the green economy, on the platform indicating an all-time high. While the classification of green jobs is on the way to maturing in India, the requirements across organisations today reflect the need of the hour and the increasing business focus by companies on ESG and CSR activities.
Further to the expansive growth in the previous months reflecting a greater transition towards the green economy, several new sectors have embarked on their journey towards green environments such as hospitality, travel, and auto.
“The global narrative for sustainability practices has seen a shift over the past year with the climate crisis and pandemic urging us to think differently. Today, the macro sentiment around
environmental safety is paramount and more and more companies have become socially conscious in their activities, striving towards a sustainable future. This has seen precedence across the board with policymakers, investors, and business leaders shifting their priorities towards a green stride, consequentially increasing the need for a green workforce,” Sekhar Garisa, CEO, Monster India, APAC and Gulf, told ET.
India, too, has seen this shift with over half a million green jobs being posted by companies online.
“There is still room for this market to mature, and we expect to see improved growth across green segments in the coming months,” said Garisa.
While the bulk of the jobs lie in traditionally green industries such as EV and renewable energy, segments such as construction, engineering, manufacturing, food farming and packaging have also witnessed demand for green job roles. Organic farming is a segment that employs many as the market has grown at a considerable rate owing to rising awareness on food consumption
patterns and the growth of the organic food industry in India.
As per Monster.com, environment service and waste management has grown 458% month-on-month this May, while pharma and biotech (up 54%) and KPO and analytics (up 42%) have exhibited positive trends for green jobs hiring.
With the initiative to build sustainable ecosystems, there is great demand for the taskforce with job roles focusing on environment officer, sustainability specialist, energy analyst, design engineer, impact assessment officer, ESG advisor, waste management analyst, and hydraulic mechanical engineer majorly in metro cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.
Companies today are hiring across experience levels of 2-4 years for such roles, in contrast to previous practices which included assignment of senior management to charter such positions.
Companies like Mahindra Electric Mobility are hiring for green roles.
The company is looking for profiles with exposure in the electric space, said Suman Mishra, CEO of Mahindra Electric Mobility.
“Experts in battery management systems, system architecture, controlled architecture, functional safety, electrochemistry, and more are being hired for all levels. In the component development and material management (CDMM), we are keenly interested in hiring those who understand EV supplier ecosystem,” said Mishra.
While the demand curve continues on an upward swing, the availability of green talent in India is slightly constrained and hence there is a need for companies to upskill existing talent to take up green roles in organisations. In-demand skillsets include climate change, waste management, sustainability and environment management.
Global climate career platform Terra.do, which aims to put 100 million people to work in the field by 2030, is seeing substantial growth for its programmes.
“Since our first batch in 2020, learners from India have grown by 5x. We are seeing consistent 18% y-o-y growth in applications coming from India,” Anshuman Bapna, co-founder, told ET.