Working towards a greener Britain: Who, where and for whose benefit?

Whittard, Damian; Bradley, Peter; Phan, Van; Ritchie, Felix

Abstract

Given the urgency of the transition to net-zero, there is a need for a robust evidence base to support green policy interventions. Intelligence in relation to green jobs, however, is partial and fragmented, partially due to the lack of an international consensus on definition. This paper contributes to addressing this knowledge gap, by exploring green employment in England and Wales. For the first time, we use multivariate analysis to account for the firm in an analysis of green employment across different groups. Using a high quality, large-scale, employer informed micro-dataset (Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings linked to Census 2011), we find that male, white, fulltime, and individuals working for small, and foreign owned companies are more likely to work in green occupations. There is also a substantial pay premium for those that do. The pay premium is not equally distributed, with Asian and Asian British workers fairing comparatively less well. Our results suggest that to have a fair and just transition, interventions may be required to address the dual inequality of opportunity and pay experienced by some minority groups in relation to green employment. Applying Holland's Theory of Career Choice, our study is also the first to use a large-scale dataset to investigate whether personal behaviours and green employment choices are consistent. To do so, we explored whether an individuals' travel to work behaviour is aligned with their choice of occupation. Preliminary results suggest that they may not be, but these findings require further investigation ahead of full publication.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence
• Start Date: May 15, 2024
• End Date: May 17, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Feb 20, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 28, 2024
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/12012662