UK sees surge in the demand for green skills despite overall job market decline - PwC Green Jobs Barometer 

• Over 9% rise in green job adverts observed despite a 22.5% contraction in the overall job market

• Share of green job adverts rises to 3.3% in 2024, accounting for nearly 23,000 more green job adverts than last year

• Green employment multiplier hits record high - now creating 27 additional jobs for every 10 new green jobs

• Rising optimism about the UK's net zero transition, with confidence highest in Northern Ireland and Scotland

• However, concerns raised about companies’ ability to meet climate targets

The latest PwC Green Jobs Barometer* reveals a 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.

Now in its fourth year, the Barometer tracks the movement in green jobs creation, job loss, carbon intensity of employment, and worker sentiment across regions and sectors. 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.

Carl Sizer, chief markets officer and management board member at PwC, said:

"The surge in green job openings in a contracting job market underscores the increasing demand for green skills, most pressingly in the energy sector where nearly half of all job adverts are now classified as green. While this demand is a great signal of intent and opportunity as the UK transitions to net zero, it’s also a sign that green skills are in short supply. Given the Government’s new increased targets to deliver clean power by 2030, the skills challenge is only going to increase. 

“As the Government works to shape its new Industrial Strategy, its focus on ensuring we have the right investment, skills, infrastructure and support to successfully lower emissions, create a low carbon economy, and foster sustainable industries will be fundamental to helping drive UK growth and competitiveness. Green jobs are the engine of this new economy, boosting productivity and unlocking opportunities across the UK.”

​A​cross the regions the Barometer reveals that​:

• Northern Ireland achieved the second largest proportion of green job adverts at 4.0%, despite having a smaller total number of green roles​ than Scotland and London, totalling ​almost 2,800.

• Yorkshire and the Humber experienced a significant rise from 2.1% to 3.4% in green job adverts, ​t​otalling almost 17,300 roles.

• The North East (2.4%), Wales (2.7%) and the East of England (2.7%) were the lowest performing regions in terms of the proportion of green job adverts to total job adverts this year,  but all regions have seen the proportionate demand for green skills double, or almost double, since 2021.

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 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 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.

Optimism and confidence in the net zero transition

The surge in green job adverts reflects growing optimism about the UK's net zero transition. This confidence is highest in regions like Northern Ireland and Scotland, bolstered by successful renewable energy projects. The Barometer indicates that residents across all regions believe the shift to a net zero economy will create more jobs than it displaces, with young people (aged 25-34) particularly optimistic about future job prospects.

Employee sentiment towards the environmental friendliness of their employment has increased for the first time since the Barometer began in 2021, jumping to an average score of 6.9 (from 6.5) out of 10, suggesting that the progress towards net zero is being felt by employees.

However, concerns about the current pace of change remain, with over 80% of survey respondents believing their employers will reduce emissions in line with the UK's net zero ambitions, yet only 40% think their companies will achieve this by 2050.

Vicky Parker, head of power and utilities at PwC UK, added:

“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 skills development plan. Sectors like energy, water and infrastructure will undergo the most drastic transformations, along with enabling sectors like higher education, engineering, manufacturing and finance. Encouragingly, there's growing optimism about these opportunities, particularly in regions where the positive impacts of the net zero transition are already being felt.”

-Ends-

Notes to Editors: 

*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. Definition of Green Jobs: Green jobs fall into three main areas: Direct production of products and services; adapting existing products and services to being more environmentally friendly, and lastly, jobs that support a green economy indirectly.