Beyond the occupational approach: A Review of alternative approaches to measure green employment
The transition toward a climate-neutral and sustainable economy requires reliable and harmonised indicators to assess how employment adapts to environmental objectives. Yet, there is no agreed standard for measuring green employment in the European Union or internationally. This report reviews the main methodologies developed to quantify green jobs, assessing their conceptual foundations, statistical feasibility, and policy relevance. Two major families of approaches are analysed: output-based measures, which identify jobs linked to the production of environmentally beneficial goods and services, and process-based measures, which capture employment in firms adopting environmentally sustainable production practices. The report compares industry- and firm-level variants of both approaches, illustrating their advantages and limitations. Building on this review, the report proposes an alternative composite indicator combining both the output and process dimensions of greenness. The framework, tested conceptually using Portuguese data, provides a more comprehensive and comparable representation of the employment implications of the green transition. It offers a practical route to integrate existing statistical sources and to improve the evidence base supporting the European Green Deal and just transition policies.
FANA Marta;
LANDINI Fabio;
2025-12-15
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC144307
978-92-68-35001-0 (online),
OP KJ-01-25-631-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC144307,
10.2760/6704279 (online),
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