Green Jobs in 2024
Our figure of the month 07/2025
Even after the turnaround, Germany faces numerous future-oriented challenges - not only in the areas of debt, migration and security policy that are often discussed in election campaigns. The ongoing transformation towards a socially and ecologically sustainable future also requires companies and society to make the decision to actively shape this development. The recently discussed special fund provides for considerable investment to achieve climate neutrality by 2045. In addition, climate neutrality is to be enshrined in the German Basic Law in future, which means that Germany will have to achieve the climate targets agreed at European level even faster for the most part. This political framework can further advance the socio-ecological transformation process.
We have been supporting Greenjobs GmbH with the evaluation of its job advertisements since 2017 2017. They relate to professions that require environmental qualifications or are published in companies whose main business is in the environmental sector.
The first figure shows the increasing relevance of workers with environmental qualifications and of companies operating in the environmental sector. Particularly noteworthy are the strikingly high numbers in 2021 and 2022, which were characterized by the coronavirus pandemic. Equally noteworthy is the continuing upward trend in job vacancies in 2024, which even exceeds the overall economic trend.
However, heterogeneous developments can be observed throughout Germany. The Auswertung der Nachfrage nach Umweltfachkräften für das Jahr 2021 evaluation of the demand for environmental specialists for 2021 already shows a high absolute demand in the urban regions of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. Berlin and the surrounding areas in particular stand out in relation to the number of inhabitants. Over the long term since 2017, Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia in particular are catching up (see table, column 2). However, the latter three federal states remain of subordinate importance in a Germany-wide comparison. Column 3 of the table clearly shows the importance of “green” jobs in Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg and Bremen in 2024, measured in terms of their population.
The previous observations are also confirmed at district level. The following map shows the absolute number of “green” jobs in 2024 at district level. The many bright areas in the federal states of Saarland, Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia and Bavaria are particularly striking.
The second map shows the number of “green” jobs per 100,000 inhabitants at district level in 2024. This shows clear conurbations around Berlin as well as very specific patterns in the individual federal states.
The maps created here take into account the advertisements placed on greenjobs.de from 2017 to 2024. Around 10,000 advertisements were published on the job portal in 2024. After excluding geographically imprecise advertisements and those from abroad, 88% could be assigned to regions within Germany. As companies also fill vacancies internally or place their advertisements on other portals (e.g. the Federal Employment Agency's job exchange), there are more vacancies for “green” jobs than those considered here. This evaluation was compiled following the “Work and qualification in the socio-ecological transformation” project. GWS worked on this project together with the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the Institute for Innovation and Technology (IIT) on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). Further information can be found here.
Other figures can be found here.