The consequences of climate change are increasingly being felt in Germany. It is estimated that since 2000, damage caused by climate change impacts in Germany has averaged 6.6 billion euros per year. The floods in the Ahr valley and the dry summers of 2018 and 2019 alone caused damage totalling around 80 billion euros^[1].  These figures are an alarm signal and underline both the relevance of environmental protection as an economic factor and the need for new skilled workers. But where are new employees being sought in this field in Germany?

A look at the job advertisements of the online job portal greenjobs.de for environmental specialists^[2] shows that many new employees were sought in 2021, especially in the largest cities of the republic. The cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich lead the ranking of cities and districts in terms of the absolute number of job advertisements. There are advertisements for green jobs in almost all regions of the republic.

For a large part of the districts, one to thirty "green" job ad(s) were published in 2021 and this tended to be more in the north of Germany. Job seekers therefore had more choice than in more southerly regions^[3].  It is also noteworthy that the regions around Berlin and Potsdam have a particularly large supply in relative comparison.

The distribution shown here takes into account the advertisements placed on greenjobs.de in 2021. Around 13,000 advertisements were published on the job portal. After excluding geographically inaccurate advertisements and those from abroad, 87 % could be assigned to regions within Germany. Since companies also fill vacancies internally or place their advertisements on other portals (e.g. job exchange of the Federal Employment Agency), there are more vacancies for "green jobs" than those considered here. 

This evaluation was carried out within the framework of the project "Work and Qualification in the Socio-Ecological Transformation". GWS is working on this 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.

[1] Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz (BMUV) and Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BMWK) (2022): Hitze, Dürre, Starkregen: Über 80 Milliarden Euro Schäden durch Extremwetter in Deutschland. Press release 18.07.2022. https://www.bmuv.de/pressemitteilung/hitze-duerre-starkregen-ueber-80-milliarden-euro-schaeden-durch-extremwetter-in-deutschland, retrieved on 30.01.2023.

[2] In this job portal, advertisements are placed for those positions for which environmental qualifications are in demand or which are to be filled in a company that conducts its main business in the environmental sector.

[3] In the districts of Aurich and Nordfriesland, for example, the figures are strongly influenced by the large companies in the wind energy sector located there.