Green jobs: Draft guidelines for the Statistical Definition and Measurement of Employment in Environmental Sector

Description

At the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in Geneva in early October, labour statisticians discussed and adopted new guidelines for the statistical definition of employment in the environmental sector. The guidelines define the environmental sector as consisting of “all economic units producing, designing and manufacturing goods and services for the purposes of environmental protection and resource management.” The discussion identified as two distinct concepts: 1. employment in production of environmental output, and 2) environmental processes. While both are aspects of greening of employment, the report states that they are different targets for policy-making, and should be measured separately using different methods.