Question reference: S6W-12419
- Date lodged: 21 November 2022
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Current status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 December 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs have been created in renewables in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Scotland’s green jobs revolution is underway and a recent report from the Universities of Strathclyde and Warwick provided an initial estimate that up to 100,000 roles are ‘new and emerging’ green jobs in Scotland. Although the researchers regard this as an upper estimate, it is encouraging to see a strong greening of jobs in Scotland.
ONS are also exploring a methodology of measuring green jobs separately. They have launched a consultation and expect to produce estimates around mid-2023.
Statistics from the ONS Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy (LCREE) survey provide estimates of renewable FTE employment statistics in Scotland. No data is available to provide additional geographic breakdowns below the Scotland level at present.
As the flowing table shows, for the 5-years 2016-2020 (latest data available), the estimates of direct jobs in renewable electricity increased from 5,000 to 6,800, an increase of 36% over the period.
Full-time equivalent staff directly employed within the LCREE | |||||
2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
Total | 5,000 | 5,600 | 5,400 | 5,200 | 6,800 |
As these estimates are subject to uncertainty, due to the relatively small sample size, the level of increases during the period are not statistically significant. Therefore, this data shows that direct FTE employment in renewables in Scotland has remained relatively stable over the period.
Other estimates of FTE employment in the renewable electricity sector exist, such as those used in the linked 2022 study by Fraser of Allander Institute (totalling 27,000 in 2020), however these do not include a historical time series, and they also include indirect and induced employment estimates. The FAI study does however use the LCREE estimates for direct FTE figures.
The-Economic-Impact-of-Scotlands-Renewable-Energy-Sector1-1.pdf (fraserofallander.org)