Roughly 264,000 people in Germany employed in environmental protection in 2017
Clean Energy Wire
The number of full-time employees working in the environmental protection sector rose from 251,222 in 2016 to 263,883 in 2017, according to new figures from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Employment effects generated by environmental protection have led to growing industries in the production of goods, services and construction operations. More than two-thirds of these green jobs (68.2 percent or 179,943 people) were in the manufacturing sector, Destatis found. Of those, 62,296 worked in mechanical engineering, mainly producing wind turbines and energy-efficient drive and control technology. In the construction sector, 45,301 employees, or 17.2 percent, were involved in environmental protection in areas such as thermal insulation of buildings and construction of sewage systems. The services sector employed 37,947 people (14.4 percent) in the environmental protection field. Architectural and engineering firms accounted for the largest service sector share, with 17,420 employees (45.9 percent) working in areas such as planning and project development in the wind energy industry.
In compiling its 2017 results, Destatis collected statistics related to environmental protection on goods, construction and services from 7,148 companies operating in Germany’s manufacturing and service sectors. The companies provided specific data on revenue and employees related to environmental protection.
