The Bureau of Labor’s latest employment summary indicates a 5 percent surge in May’s unemployment rates, which according to the Labor Department, is the largest monthly spike in more than two decades.

Although the economy has lost 49,000 jobs for a fifth month of decline, a new report (pdf) by the Political Economy Research Institute illustrates that strong climate policy would directly protect over 14 million American jobs.  It would also greatly stimulate green investment, driving further green job creation.

As the nation struggles with an economy in recession, rising unemployment rates, and record-high oil prices, could “green collar jobs” in America’s growing clean energy sector spur the transition to a green economy?

Hard Times in the Job Market
Speaking in the NY Times, Robert Barbera, chief economist at the research and trading firm ITG  says, “It’s unambiguously ugly. The average American already knows that gas prices are up a ton and it’s really hard to find a job." For some communities, the job market is harder than others, with unemployment among African-Americans climbing to 9.7%, and joblessness for teens aged 16 to 19 climbing three percent in the month of April to 18.7%.

Meanwhile, the federal government failed yet again to pass climate legislation that many argue would stimulate green jobs.  Senate Republicans also voted a second time against renewing essential tax credits for renewable-energy companies.

According to groups such as the Sierra Club, more than 116,000 U.S. jobs and nearly $19 billion in investment may be imperiled over the next year if the renewable energy credits aren’t extended.

"More than ever, with record energy prices, record unemployment, and grave concerns about global warming, Congress needs to work out differences so we can stabilize energy costs for consumers and businesses, improve our nation's energy security, and create tens of thousands of quality, green-collar jobs," said Solar Energy Industries Association President Rhone Resch following the Senate vote.

Despite the bad news, all hope is not lost for the rise of green collar jobs.

Good Jobs, Green Jobs
There is no doubt the number of green-collar jobs is growing, despite the absence of sound federal policy.  Homeowners, business, and industry are shifting toward conservation and renewable energy as gas prices rise. These numbers are expected to increase greatly in the next few decades as more state governments implement clean energy mandates. Presently, twenty-eight state governments require that between 10 and 25 percent of their energy be obtained through renewable sources in a decade or two. In response, many companies are rushing into the clean tech sector.

In cities like San Francisco and Oakland, using green collar jobs to break the cycle of poverty has become a top priority.  In response to a recent report from San Francisco’s Office of Economic Analysis criticizing the city’s ambitious green building code proposition, Mayor Gavin Newsom justified the short-term price tag by citing the potential for green collar job creation.

"There's a lot of myth-making regarding the up-front costs, and we have argued that it is not as significant as others suggest," Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I don't accept the premise that there will be a hit to the (city) economy."

At the Energy Economy Summit in January, California politicians, community leaders, businesses and labor groups all spoke of the importance of supporting green jobs. The "Good Jobs, Green Jobs” national conference, held in Pittsburgh in March, also represented a coming-of-age for the movement. It was coordinated by the Blue-Green Alliance, a groundbreaking partnership between the United Steel Workers and the Sierra Club, that has since partnered with Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. The conference gave a national platform to the work of groups like Green For All, Center for American Progress, Ella Baker Center, Workforce Alliance, and the Apollo Alliance.

“Good jobs, Green Jobs” brought together hundreds of government officials, activists, corporate representatives, and trade unions to seek consensus how America’s cities can climb out of poverty through green jobs. They argue that cap-and-trade legislation, shutting down coal-fired power plants and closing SUV factories will only cost American jobs if we're not ready to hire people installing solar panels, manufacturing wind turbines, and re-building our outdated electricity grid. The work of retro-fitting America with clean technology and best practices in energy efficiency could produce millions of jobs. If we had policies in place to help the market.

Green Political Rhetoric
The promise of "green collar jobs" has even entered the Presidential campaign. Presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, in multiple speeches across the country, has promised the government would spend $150 billion to create 5 million such jobs. "I think the idea of bringing green jobs is important, which is why that's central to my energy plan."

Obama advocates “an energy policy that works with automakers to raise fuel standards, makes corporations pay for their pollution, and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future –- an energy policy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. That’s the change we need."

Senator John McCain has stated that "No problem is greater than America's dependence on foreign oil.” Without citing specific numbers, he claims energy independence and a de-carbonized economy will create "thousands, millions of new jobs in America."

Despite the candidates' professed admiration for green collar jobs, it is less clear how to create a policy that will please everyone.

Jobs: Some Lost. Some Gained.
Opponents are concerned about whether green jobs will simply be replacements for positions lost to outsourcing and overseas manufacturing as carbon and environmental standards increase.  Conservative opponents also want to protect the fossil fuel industry that our economy and culture is dependent on.

A study by the National Association of Manufacturers estimated that one of the main carbon cap-and-trade proposals before Congress would cost the U.S. economy up to 4 million jobs by 2030.

"Many millions of jobs have been lost in manufacturing. I'm a little skeptical that green technology is going to create that many jobs to replace that magnitude of jobs," Georgetown Public Policy Institute economist Harry Holzer said.

Andrew Hoerner, Sustainable Economics Director at Redefining Progress, agrees in part by stating, “Poorly designed climate policy that force domestic producers to clean up, may simply induce them to ship their production, pollution, and jobs to other countries, then import their goods back to the US.”

The result would be lost jobs in the US, increased living expenses that would further burden the low income sector, and globally increased climate pollution as we shut down relatively cleaner plants here and increase production at less efficient plants abroad.

On the other hand, “Sound policy decisions can connect the energy future of the United States with the cause of social justice through the creation of a new workforce of quality jobs that companies cannot outsource,” says Majora Carter, the Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx at the “Good Jobs, Green Jobs” conference. 

“Sound policy can [also] improve the environment, spur economic growth, and lift people out of poverty on a tide of new jobs,” Carter continues. “Environmental justice is civil rights in the 21st century.”

According to environmental groups, cap and trade and other anti–climate change policies, at first glance, look like short-term economic losers that will raise the cost of energy and lead to job loss.  But in actuality, they claim many more jobs will be created than lost.

In the most-often-cited estimate, a report commissioned by the American Solar Energy Society said the United States had 8.5 million jobs in renewable-energy or energy-efficient industries. In addition, Jerome Ringo, president of the Apollo Alliance, predicts that the United States could generate three million to five million more green jobs over the next 10 years if the right policies were in place with ample funding for training.

More Than Just Jobs at Stake
"You can level the playing field with respect to job training to help those who have been disproportionately hurt by global warming, which has been the poor.  [Lets] make it easier for the poor to reap the benefits of the new jobs," says Ringo.

“So far, $125 million of federal funding has been created through the 2007 Green Jobs Act,” says Nwamaka Agbo, Green-Collar Jobs Campaign Statewide Organizer for the Ella Baker Center, at a 2008 Eco-City World Summit panel on green collar jobs.  “This isn’t enough to reach our goals, but it is a step in getting us to our greater vision.”

“The green economy is still in the early stages of establishing itself, and green economic policies will be emerging soon [with the next election].  We need to establish good local training programs in our cities, because we know new green jobs are coming down the pipeline.”

“We also want to take careful steps, like ensuring apprenticeships are included in the training, so that trade unions can’t lock out low income people," says Agbo. She calculates that training costs break down to about $4000 per person.  “We are pushing to make sure these jobs are standardized and local/regional.”

Green collar jobs will “have staying power and cannot be easily outsourced, say, to Asia," says Van Jones, president of Green for All, a group based in Oakland, California, whose goal is promoting renewable energy and lifting workers out of poverty. "If we are going to weatherize buildings, they have to be weatherized here," he said.

"These jobs will be better for the workers' future, for their job security" said Lucy Blake, the chief executive of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups, labor unions and politicians seeking to transform the economy into one based on renewable energy. "These green technologies are making products that the world wants, like energy-efficient buildings and light fixtures." Green jobs, she adds, "offer competitive family-wages and benefits.”

Which brings up the question: what exactly is a green job, and how do you ensure that it's a good one?

What is a Green Job?
Advocates add that benefits of green jobs are as large, empowering, and varied as slowing global warming, revitalizing the economy and our communities, reducing poverty and dependence on foreign oil, and improve the efficiency and performance of our energy system.

Yet when asked to define a green collar job at the “Green Jobs, Good Jobs” conference, Patrick Neville of the Apollo Alliance says, "It’s really hard for us to say with any certainty until there is standardization."

 "What we’re really focusing on is what is not a green collar job and that’s a job that although it may help the environment, there are no opportunities for career advancement or it’s a job that can easily be outsourced."

In other words the guy who mops the floor at the bio-diesel plant is not a green collar worker. But the windmill technician is. If you ask whether working at a ‘clean coal’ plant qualifies, however, the answer isn’t at all straightforward.

In its most basic definition, "A green-collar job is in essence a blue-collar job that has been upgraded to address the environmental challenges of our country," says Blake.

Speaking with Arcwire, Agbo states, “These are good, living wage jobs with high level satisfaction.  There is no slave mentality coming into the picture. These jobs are aimed at improving the environment. Therefore working at an ethanol plant would not qualify as a green collar job.” 

Most encouraging, she says, is that "when a person sees their work as improving their local community and environment—and being respected for that—there is a sense of dignity and empowerment.  It puts green in their pocket and green in the environment.”