A report released today from President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers says that cleantech and healthcare jobs will drive a jobs recovery. “Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow,” offers an overview of how the U.S. labor market is expected to grow and develop over the next few years. The analysis suggests that the that the U.S. economy will likely emerge from the current economic downturn with strong growth over the next five to ten years in industries such as health care, education, transportation, and construction. There will also be strong growth in employment in industries devoted to the production and distribution of clean energy.
The report, entitled “Cleantech Comes of Age,” discusses the trends in clean technology from the impact of oil prices to the M&A market and includes data from the MoneyTree Report, a quarterly survey that tracks cash-for-equity investments by the professional venture capital community in private emerging companies in the United States.The increased venture capital investment into the Cleantech sector can be directly associated with the growing concerns about the environment, energy costs and security. Despite signs of a weakening economy, the high investment level and intensified adoption rate of technologies in this sector validates the expected growth predicted by industry experts.
How to Find a Job In This Crap Economy. Allison Hemming, author of Work it! How to Get Ahead, Save your Ass and Land a Job in any Economy!. and owner of Hired Guns, a talent agency that places creative professionals in high profile positions recently gave some career advice for Flavorwire, How to Find a Job In This Crap Economy [Ask an Expert]. She gave lots of great advice. However, the tip she provided that will stand out for people looking to making a move to a green career covers the issue of relocating to find working in a green field.
The desire to make the career transition from IT to cleantech is an extremely popular one. The reasons are fairly obvious. After 30 years of tremendous innovation and high growth, there appears to be less opportunity than there once was. Whereas cleantech seems to be a area open to new out-of-the box thinking and has a landscape of great opportunity. This is the time when you can really make your mark and IT professionals seeking to make a green career transition have an advantage over many others seeking to do the same. Network engineering and systems operations, user front-end development, software development, and embedded device development are just a few areas where IT professionals will find themselves in great demand. There are skills transferability opportunities on almost every level.
The San Diego region, home to several world class research universities and institutes as well more than 500 biotechnology companies, is on its way to becoming a major center for renewable energy development, especially in the area of biofuels. Biofuel’s are a natural extension that compliments San Diego’s already vibrant life science cluster. This regional potential was given a boost with the establishment of the new the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, or “SD-CAB.” The primary goal of the center will be to create a national facility capable of developing and implementing innovative research solutions for the commercialization of fuel production from algae.
The Clean Technology Trade Alliance will create green jobs by helping identify and grow clean tech businesses. Headquartered in the Seattle area, CTTA will focus on identifying US clean technology companies, profiling their products and services and provide a global sales force to identify and qualify business opportunities for its member companies.
The Cleantech Group™, founders of the clean technology investment category and providers of global market research and other services for the clean technology ecosystem, recently announced that it is making its 2008 Annual Review & 4Q08 Investment Monitor available for free download to celebrate Earth Day 2009. For one week only, this report will be available to non-members to dramatically illustrate how technology is being used to save our planet and its natural resources.
