Creating Green Jobs

The state has been on a kick about generating green jobs. In the pursuit of demonstrating its awesomeness the state has been showing off statistics that show a large increase in the number of green jobs. As with most state developed statistics its statistics regarding the number of created green jobs are a bit… inflated:

BLS compiled a list of 333 industries that can be classified as green, and those who are employed in those industries can be counted as “green workers.” Thus, the definition is extremely broad and includes both direct jobs and indirect jobs. Some examples of jobs considered to be green by this definition are[v]:

  • A person who sweeps the floor in a solar panel manufacturing facility
  • A driver of a hybrid bus
  • A school bus driver
  • An employee who fills the bus with fuel
  • An employee involved in waste collection or water and sewer operations
  • A clerk at a bicycle repair shop
  • A manufacturer of rail cars
  • An oil lobbyist whose company is engaged in environmental issues.
  • An employee of an environment or science museum.

I wonder how oil lobbyists managed to get their job on the green list. It’s not like they spend all of their time greasing politician’s palms or anything. Either way, as you can see, the statistics regarding the number of green jobs in this country are artificially inflated malarkey.