Roofer, insulator and electrician? Green needs you!

Are you a sheet metal worker, machinist, truck driver? Roofer, insulator and electrician? There’s a whole world of green jobs just waiting for you, according to a new report. No word on if the green world wants everyone else, staring out the window into the gloom of the capital after having hauled their carcass into the office once more for their regular gig as a wage slave, coffee in a plastic cup and flirtation with the receptionist and all.

Still, let’s all feel good for the machinists et al – the green world is practically crying out for them, according to a newly released study by the US Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute.

It says:

The six green strategies we examine here are: building retrofitting, mass transit, energy-efficient automobiles, wind power, solar power, and cellulosic biomass fuels. We show that the vast majority of jobs associated with these six green strategies are in the same areas of employment that people already work in to-day, in every region and state of the country. For example, constructing wind farms creates jobs for sheet metal workers, machinists and truck drivers, among many others. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through retrofitting relies, among others, on roofers, insulators and building inspectors. What makes these entirely familiar occupations “green jobs” is that the people working in them are contributing their everyday labors toward building a green economy. We therefore consider and refer to the strategies examined in this report as green investments, in addition to global warming solutions. […]

What is clear from this report is that millions of U.S. workers—across a wide range of familiar occupations, states, and income and skill levels—will all benefit from the project of defeating global warming and transforming the United States into a green economy.

And if you’re one of the lucky jobs that the growing green economy wants to clasp to its bosom, there’s even the prospect of higher wages to boot.

Says the report:

For example, let’s come back to the sheet metal workers who could be building high-performance wind turbines over the next decade. There are about 168,000 sheet metal workers now employed throughout the country. Roughly 10,000 are in Florida, 5,000 in Ohio, 1,000 in Nebraska, and 3,000 in Oregon. Depending on where they work, they are now earning, on average, between about $15.50 (Tennessee) and $27.00 (New York) per hour. A push to dramatically increase the country’s supply of wind energy will mean increased demand for these work-ers. Rising demand could also lead to rising average wages.

You can get the full report here. Go on, you know you want to.