This Policy Paper investigates the relationship between the environmental transition and the Portuguese labour market by analysing the supply and demand of green jobs. The study examines recent employment trends across five specific green occupations in Portugal using two primary data sources: registered labour supply and demand from the Employment Centres of the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional, IEFP) between 2014 and 2023, and microdata from the Personnel Tables Personnel Tables collected by the Strategy and Planning Office of the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity, and Social Security (Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento do Ministério do Trabalho Solidariedade e Segurança Social, GEP-MTSSS) from 2010 to 2021. The paper also analyses Portugal’s corresponding education and training system for the environmental sector.
Acknowledging the lack of a consensus definition for “green jobs” in the literature, this paper reviews various identification methodologies. These are broadly classified into two approaches—sector-based and occupation-based—with this paper adopting the latter.
Findings indicate that Portugal’s green jobs market exhibits imbalances, with some occupations showing a surplus of candidates while others face labour shortages. The employment profiles of the studied occupations vary significantly by education level, gender, age, and wages. The five green occupations studied demonstrate a clear growth trend. However, they represent a small share of the Portuguese employment.
Environmental transition impacts on labour market by simultaneously creating and eliminating jobs, thereby demanding new skills. Consequently, training and retraining programs are essential to prevent or mitigate the potential labour market imbalances generated by this transition. Future research should focus on diagnosing and forecasting the skills required for green jobs to better inform public policies, particularly those concerning education and vocational training.
Keywords: green jobs; environmental transition; labour market; public policies; Portugal
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