Green jobs update

The Washington Business Journal counts up green job growth in the DC area:

The Washington area ranks fourth among the largest 100 metro areas for total number of green jobs. The region's green jobs sector has increased by 5 percent each of the last seven years, with 70,828 jobs total in 2010, up by 20,403 in 2003. The clean economy's share of all metro jobs is still small, however, reaching only 2.3 percent, according to the research.

While the idea of green jobs may conjure up images of scientists busy developing radical new technologies or blue collar types constructing advanced wind turbines, the reality appears somewhat different:

Renewable energy, perhaps the most widely discussed sector of the clean economy, currently occupies a relatively small market share in this region. While public mass transit in the Washington area accounted for nearly 10,000 green jobs, wind farms employed only 312 people.

A large number of green jobs are bureaucratic in nature, with more people sitting behind a desk than installing solar panels on buildings. Regulation and compliance is the second largest segment of D.C.’s clean economy, right after conservation.

Our bright shiny green jobs future: bus drivers and bureaucrats.