Greening the U.S. economy is good for the manufacturing and construction sectors, which together accounted for roughly half of all the jobs lost since the recession started in 2007.
Most of the jobs created in the coming decade will be “middle-skill,” requiring workers to have more than a high school education but less than a four-year college degree. Workforce development is crucial to ensure that this group of workers has the skills that are needed.
The construction industry could provide millions of jobs and dramatically lower the U.S. share of CO2 emissions if the nation committed to a large-scale effort to improve the energy efficiency of office buildings and housing stock.
U.S. farm policy urgently needs to be reformed in ways that promote sustainable agriculture, and this could lead to multiple benefits: making farming a viable occupation for more people, boosting rural economic development, improving the environment, and increasing the amount of healthy foods people eat.
Jobs in caregiver fields tend to pay extremely poor wages and offer meager benefits. Given the increasing importance of these jobs, for example, in holding down rising health care costs, it is hard to see how the nation can adequately address the growing demand for these services without improvements in job quality.
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