Is green the next opportunity for recruiters?

Unless you've been living under a rock lately you've probably heard talk of green/cleantech energy as the linchpin of the 21st century economy.

Over the past year and a half I have started a number of green job boards to take advantage of this trend. After seeing first hand, the number and types of jobs being created I am convinced more than ever of this industry's potential. I've also researched the green job market substantially and have discovered over 50 different green job sites. If that isn't a trend I don't know what is.

So if green is a part of the new job market where are the recruiters? I think the time is now to brand yourself as a green recruiter. I see opportunity.

There are many sectors of the green industry that you could specialize in. These include the obvious ones like solar, wind and biofuels. But also things like energy efficiency, hydroelectric, wastewater, fuel cells, sustainability, geothermal and smart grid.

I've come across a few green recruiters such as GreenManAlliance and Bright Green Talent. But I think there is plenty of room for other 3rd party peeps and staffing firms to specialize.

The states with the biggest green job growth will be places like California, Texas, Arizona, New York and Washington DC. The Midwest will become the region with the most wind farms (from Texaas to Minnesota) since those areas see the most wind. States like Michigan and Ohio will become green manufacturing states where many solar panels and wind turbines will be produced.

One of the biggest green employers will be General Electric. They are the largest builder of turbines in the U.S. and have a center in upstate NY that employs thousands.

So who among you will become green recruiters? I look forward to the race.

###

Chris Russell is a ten year veteran of the online job search industry. His latest project is GreenJobSpider.com: the "green jobs search engine".

Comment by Chuck Summerland on March 5, 2010 at 5:10pm: Hi Chris,

Interesting post, your right on how fast this "green" movement is growing. Over the past year I have worked on and offered our paperless backoffice system to recruitment companies. During my meetings I have seen an growing interest in the way recruitment companies can now market themselves as "Green" to potential clients. I'll be interested to see if the companies who consider themselves "green recruiters" also use a paperless backoffice or not.