Now Hiring: Green-Collar Workers www.USAgreenjobsnow.org

Now Hiring: Green-Collar Workers

The federal government is poised to pump billions into clean energy projects that could create as many as 1.5 million new green jobs www.USAgreenjobsnow.org

A GREEN RECOVERY?

"It's inevitable, as the money really starts to flow into infrastructure programs, particularly green projects, there will be job growth here over the next year," says John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement company based in Chicago.

The Obama Administration is looking to health care and green jobs to help drive the job recovery. According to the Pew study, green jobs grew by 9.1% from 1998 to 2007, nearly two and a half times faster than the overall job market. And the growth will likely accelerate because of growing consumer demand, venture capital infusions, and government reforms, the report concluded.

In a July 15 column in The Seattle Times, Van Jones, special advisor for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, identified some green projects getting stimulus funding, starting with a $5 billion investment to make America's homes more energy-efficient. Among the other projects: $44 million to extend light rail from Seattle's downtown to the University of Washington, energy-efficient renovations to four public housing high-rises in Minneapolis, and hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in clean energy generation and conservation at veterans hospitals.

INCENTIVES FOR GROWTH

William Bogart, economics professor and dean of academic affairs at York College of Pennsylvania, is skeptical of the plan. He doesn't doubt that it will create jobs, but he's concerned that it isn't an efficient way to spend money and that government's decisions on which companies get funding could be influenced by politics, especially since the definition of a "green job" is subjective