Northern Ireland sees significant growth for green jobs in 2024

Northern Ireland has seen the volume of green jobs as a proportion of all job adverts increase year on year from 2.4% to 4%, the second highest share of green job adverts in the UK and higher than the UK average of 3.3%, according to PwC’s latest Green Jobs Barometer. Scotland ranked first, with a share of 5.6%.

The Professional, Scientific, and Technical sector continues to lead the total number of green roles advertised, accounting for around 92,200 green job adverts, which equates to 8.3% of total job ad​verts in the sector.

The number of green jobs advertised in Northern Ireland has also seen a 25.6% increase year on year - despite market conditions - bringing the total number to just under 2800.

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Northern Ireland saw the largest increase in the number of green job adverts in the mining and quarrying (41%), electricity (9.2%) and construction (6.9%) sectors. This growth was partially offset however by modest reductions in sectors including manufacturing (-0.5%), transport & storage (-0.4%) and accommodation and food services (-0.3%)

PwC’s Green Jobs Barometer, now in its fourth year, tracks the movement in green jobs creation, job loss, carbon intensity of employment, and worker sentiment across regions and sectors.

Jason Calvert, Director and Economist at PwC Northern Ireland, said: “It’s encouraging to see that green job creation in Northern Ireland continues to show resilience. It is clear that there are opportunities for further growth here - while our green jobs market is small and needs to be scaled up, there is a lot we can do. DAERA’s Green Growth Strategy, which includes developing a workforce that supports climate action, is a further step in driving us toward creating meaningful solutions for businesses here to benefit from the opportunities of the net zero transition.

Ultimately, in order for Northern Ireland to thrive in a net zero world, we need a skilled workforce, and so we must make a concerted effort to create new low carbon jobs, and adopt a coordinated approach to upskill and reskill the existing workforce. Policymakers also need to incentivise higher education in fields that will support the green economy, creating better conditions to retain new graduates in the region, ensuring that we are harnessing young people’s passion for the environment and creating the skills NI will need to thrive in a net zero world.”

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The UK's successful transition to a low carbon economy rides on a two-pronged approach: a concerted effort to create thousands of new low carbon jobs across the UK and a coordinated approach to upskill and reskill the existing workforce. This requires collaboration between government, industry, and education providers to develop and implement a comprehensive action plan.

Across the UK

The latest PwC Green Jobs Barometer reveals a significant surge in green job adverts across the UK, reflecting a growing demand for green skills despite a 22.5% contraction in the overall job market.

It finds that the share of green job adverts as a proportion of total job adverts increased to 3.3% in 2024 - up from 2.3% in 2023 - adding nearly 23,000 new green job adverts. This 9.2% rise in the number of green job adverts nationwide comes despite a 22.5% contraction in the overall job market. 

London leads the regions in the total number of green job adverts with over 58,500 – this marks a 30% increase of over 13,300 roles advertised in the past year, representing a green jobs market 3.4 times bigger than first recorded in 2021. Scotland leads with the highest proportion of job adverts considered as green at 5.6%, totaling approximately 28,700 roles, triple the size of the Scottish green jobs market that was first recorded by the Barometer in 2021.

The Barometer also finds that green jobs are having a greater ripple effect on the wider job market. The green employment multiplier has reached 2.7, meaning every 10 new green jobs create an additional 27 jobs in the wider economy. This represents the largest year-on-year increase since the Green Jobs Barometer began. The Energy sector saw an even higher multiplier effect of 9.2, driven by a surge in green job adverts in regions like Scotland.

Sector Insights

The share of job adverts that are classified as green has increased in nearly all sectors, with the exception of the public services, hospitality and other service sectors.

• The Construction sector demonstrated the largest increase, with around 39,900 green roles advertised, a 62.8% rise from last year, making up 6.9% of total job ad​verts in the sector.
• The Retail sector experienced a 71.8% increase, with approximately 31,300 green roles advertised, representing 2.2% of total job ad​verts in the sector.
• The Energy sector leads for the proportion of green job adverts with nearly half (45%) of all job advertisements in the sector now classified as green. This is up from 21.1% in 2021, at almost 11,800 adverts.

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