• Despite recent growth, Latin American labor markets are still behind in the global green transition trend, report warns
• This trend will generate more than 15 million new jobs.
• Agriculture is the sector with the highest green skills penetration, and environmental services is the region’s fastest growing green skill.

The second joint report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and LinkedIn focuses on the state of green jobs and skills in the region’s labor markets between 2015 and 2021. The analysis indicates a clear growth of these trends, yet a slow one considering the speed and intensity of countries’ journeys towards greener economies.

The report examines two crucial indicators elicited from LinkedIn’s data: Growth and penetration rate of green skills, - those related to sustainability promotion activities, such as pollution prevention,- and rates of green hiring, which is the hiring rate of users considered as green talent (members who add at least one core green skill or have a green job or greening job).

The pandemic functioned as a catalyst for the growth of green hiring, particularly in Brazil and Mexico, according to the study. Another key finding is that most jobs that require green skills are not traditional green jobs, which shows the need to increase these skills in different economic sectors.

LinkedIn’s data, available for research and analysis thanks to the Development Data Partnership, comes from information published by members on their job changes and skills. It represents a subset of the workforce, particularly high-skilled workers in knowledge-intensive sectors, but it provides disaggregated and timely data at a rate that traditional labor market sources cannot match. 

“To harness the growth that is coming about because of climate change mitigation and action, countries need knowledge and insight on the speed and nature of green economic trends and a strategic approach to these productive transformations,” explained Laura Ripani, head of the Labor Markets Division at the Inter-American Development Bank.

The transition to low-carbon economies presents an opportunity for job creation. According to a report by IDB and ILO in 2020, up to 15 million net jobs will be created in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030 in the transition. However, the analysis of LinkedIn’s data shows that the green hiring rate is below the region's aggregate hiring rate, except for Chile and Mexico.

Download the IDB and LinkedIn’s report about green jobs and skills in Latin America in Spanish or English.