Study: CA Green Job & Business Growth Significantly

PR Newswire - New data released today shows that California green businesses have increased 45 percent in number and 36 percent in employment from 1995 to 2008 while total jobs in California expanded only 13 percent. As the economy slowed between 2007 and 2008, total employment fell 1 percent, but green jobs continued to grow five percent. The Sacramento Area led the pack with job growth of 87 percent from 1995 to 2008, followed by the San Diego Region (57 percent), the Bay Area (51 percent), and Orange County and Inland Empire (50 percent).

Many Shades of Green: Diversity and Distribution of California's Green Jobs, released by the nonpartisan Next 10 and Collaborative Economics, provides the most comprehensive green jobs accounting to date, systematically tracking the most recent available data on green companies, job type, location and growth across every sector and region of California

While the absolute numbers of green jobs are not large, they are comparable to the biotech and software sectors, according to the report.