The alternative energy industry — the green business — is about to ramp up its hiring, with the next year likely to show an increase in demand, according to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

“Once you start seeing more investments made in our economy recovering, as we stabilize and we get people back to work, then I think there’ll be more interest in expanding,” Solis said. “There’ll be more, hopefully, credit available for this expansion, because there will be more confidence because that’s what we’re lacking right now — that investment and confidence in the market.”

All signs truly point in this direction. In addition to the development of the green energy business over the past several years, the amount of capital flowing into fledgling companies in this space is growing rapidly. Last quarter, a study by Ernst & Young put clean technology (“cleantech”) venture capital investing at $572 million — a quarter-over-quarter increase of 73%. Jobs do follow capital, as employees are needed to make that investor cash productive.

Compared to the second quarter of  08, the second-highest quarter for cleantech investment on record, the Q2 09 results were 59% and 16% below those record levels in terms of capital and number of transactions respectively.

Read the rest of the article over at Blogging Stocks.

For more information about the positive impact of cleantech investors on jobs, check out the following posts:

Council of Economic Advisors Says Cleantech and Healthcare Jobs Will Help Drive The Recovery

Clean Energy Investments Can Create 1.7 Million Jobs and Jumpstart The Economy

Recommended Green Career Resources:

SIX STRATEGIES TO FIND YOUR GREEN CAREER – This free ebook by Carol McClelland PhD is a step-by-step process helping green career seekers use their passions, interests, experience, and training to plug into the green economy.

THE COMPLETE GREEN JOB GUIDE 2009: SECRETS FOR GETTING THE JOB YOUR WANT – Discover How To Unlock The Booming Green Economy For Your Job Search And Future Financial Security with the 10 Breakthrough Steps You Need To Know To Find And Land A Green Job Quickly.

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Author: Tracey de Morsella (323 Articles)

Tracey de Morsella started her career working as an editor for US Technology Magazine. She used that experience to launch Delaware Valley Network, a publication for professionals in the Greater Philadelphia area. Years later, she used the contacts and resources she acquired to work in executive search specializing in technical and diversity recruitment. She has conducted recruitment training seminars for Wachovia Bank, the Department of Interior and the US Postal Service. During this time, she also created a diversity portal called The Multicultural Advantage and published the Diversity Recruitment Advertising Toolkit, a directory of recruiting resources for human resources professionals. Her career and recruitment articles have appeared in numerous publications and web portals including Woman Engineer Magazine, Monster.com, About.com Job Search Channel, Workplace Diversity Magazine, Society for Human Resource Management web site, NSBE Engineering Magazine, HR.com, and Human Resource Consultants Association Newsletter. Her work with technology professionals drew her to pursuing training and work in web development, which led to a stint at Merrill Lynch as an Intranet Manager. In March, she decided to combine her technical and career management expertise with her passion for the environment, and with her husband, launched The Green Economy Post, a blog providing green career information and covering the impact of the environment, sustainable building, cleantech and renewable energy on the US economy. Her sustainability articles have appeared on Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation, Chem.Info,FastCompany and CleanTechies.