‘Green Jobs Now: Louisiana’ – WorkingNation’s Data-Driven Report Examines the State’s Growing Green Economy

WorkingNation, a nonprofit news organization reporting on the future of work, released “Green Jobs Now: Louisiana” – multimedia reports and original data showing how green jobs affect Louisiana’s economy and how upskilling the workforce in green ways could drive growth.

Louisiana’s green economy includes more than 11,000 workers, with a projected increase in employment demand in coming years, according to Emsi Burning Glass, the firm that collected and analyzed original data for the project. A planned $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure investment should help drive such jobs.

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“Green Jobs Now: Louisiana” identifies the state’s most in-demand green skills overall and for selected occupations, and suggests certain workers could get salary boosts by learning and applying green skills. For example, a civil engineer who has green skills and competencies could make $5,200 more than average for the occupation in Louisiana. And many could benefit: An estimated 462,580 Louisiana workers could learn new skills to enable access to the growing number of green jobs.

Additionally, Louisiana’s abundance of water, and the need to protect it, can be a green jobs driver.

“Most people really don’t appreciate that all the water we have to use is here already,” says Paula DiPerna, a consultant to WorkingNation on the green economy. “There is never going to be any more water on the planet. The bell has rung in states like Louisiana and, for that matter, everywhere that water really is in jeopardy. … If the water supply deteriorates, society will need to bring it back up to usability and potability, and meeting that need will require workers.”

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“Green Jobs Now: Louisiana” is the second state-focused installment of the WorkingNation/Emsi Burning Glass “Green Jobs Now” series, a data-driven journalism project to define and identify green jobs and skills, pinpoint where workers can find them, and present a vivid snapshot of the green economy. Prior installments looked at green jobs in Pennsylvania and nationally.

The Louisiana reporting, supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, includes:

• a WorkingNation.org article by Ramona Schindelheim on Louisiana’s green economy and the story of a mid-career worker reskilling towards a better job and better pay in green energy.
• a “Work Green, Earn Green” audio podcast. Host Jay Tipton examines Louisiana’s relationship with water, which can put locals at physical and environmental risk but also make the economy and green jobs flow.
• an “I Want That Job!” video offering an inside look at geoscientists and green aspects of their work.
• an Emsi Burning Glass report detailing green jobs data and trends in the Pelican State.

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