{"id":12755,"date":"2023-07-26T06:30:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T06:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=12755"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:08:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:08:00","slug":"could-green-jobs-help-to-solve-chinas-unemployment-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/could-green-jobs-help-to-solve-chinas-unemployment-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Could green jobs solve China\u2019s unemployment woes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite global layoffs, green employment is rising following China\u2019s carbon neutrality pledge, writes Jiang Mengnan for China Dialogue<\/h2>\n

Around the world, tech and finance companies have been laying staff off. In 2022, tech firms\u2019 payrolls fell by 164,000 employees, with a further 166,000 jobs cut in the first quarter of 2023, according to tracking platform Layoffs.fyi. In China, youth unemployment is also rising, hitting 20% this April.<\/p>\n

And yet for green employment, spring has come. The US, worst hit by the layoffs, saw over 100,000 green jobs advertised in the six months from last August. The share of green employment in the global total rose from 9.6% in 2015 to 13.3% in 2021, according to LinkedIn\u2019s Green Skills Report.<\/p>\n

In China, government plans to peak and neutralise national carbon emissions, and the push for a wholesale green transition has caused a boom in \u201cgreen employment\u201d. The sector is expected to employ 1 million people by 2025. There\u2019s even hype online that these jobs can pay as much as 150,000 yuan (US$20,900) per month.<\/p>\n

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According to the 2023 update of the government\u2019s Green Industry Guidance Catalogue, such industries include: energy-saving and carbon-reduction (a service mainly provided by tech companies to big corporations); environmental protection; recycling and reuse of resources; clean energy; ecological protection, restoration and utilisation; green upgrading of infrastructure; and green services (like environmental monitoring and impact assessing). Many of these are emerging sectors, steadily creating jobs.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, regulatory changes since last decade have prompted companies and institutional investors to set up sustainability or ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) departments, which require staff. Partly driven by such trends, other entities such as academic institutions and media also require more green talent.<\/p>\n

Together, these form \u201cgreen employment\u201d \u2013 jobs directly in green industries or in other industries but with a green focus.<\/p>\n

So, what do we know about green employment in China?<\/p>\n