The UK had an estimated 652,100 full-time equivalent employees in green jobs in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics, marking a 27.8% increase since 2015 but a fall from the previous year.
The ONS said the headline estimate, based on a green industries approach, rose by 142,000 FTEs from 510,100 in 2015. Between 2023 and 2024, however, the number of green jobs fell by 10,800 FTEs.
The largest decreases were recorded in energy efficient products, down 17,600 FTEs, and waste activity, down 10,100 FTEs. Those falls were partially offset by increases in other activities, including nuclear power, which rose by 9,200 FTEs.
Energy efficient products remained the largest green employment group in 2024, with 130,000 FTEs, representing 19.9% of all green job FTEs. Waste accounted for 119,200 FTEs and renewable energy for 63,200 FTEs. Together, those three activities made up just under half of all green job FTEs.
The ONS figures are provisional because 2024 UK Environmental Accounts data had not yet been published when the estimates were prepared. The statistical agency used sources including the Business Register and Employment Survey to estimate employment changes.
The data gives a more nuanced picture than a simple green growth narrative. Green employment has expanded materially over the past decade, while the most recent annual movement points to uneven momentum across the sectors expected to support the UK’s transition to net zero.
The fall in energy efficient products stands out because energy efficiency sits close to business costs, household bills, building upgrades, and industrial decarbonisation. Weakness in that category may reflect project timing, demand conditions, installation capacity, policy uncertainty, or classification effects, but it underlines that the transition depends on practical delivery markets as well as headline targets.
Green employment is also linked to infrastructure. Planning reforms intended to accelerate major infrastructure approvals include clean energy schemes, transport links, reservoirs, and data centres. Faster approvals may support investment, although the labour market effect depends on skills, supply chains, training pathways, and regional capacity.
The workforce issue is becoming more acute as companies expand in renewables, nuclear, grid infrastructure, energy efficiency, environmental services, waste, water, construction, engineering, and low carbon manufacturing. Skilled technicians, project managers, designers, planners, analysts, and compliance specialists are already in demand. If the labour pipeline does not develop in step with investment, project delays and wage pressure will follow.
Regional differences are likely to shape the employment picture. Green jobs can support industrial renewal outside London, particularly where energy, manufacturing, ports, nuclear, hydrogen, carbon capture, and grid projects are clustered. Those opportunities depend on local training provision, transport links, procurement visibility, and confidence that projects will move from consent to construction.
The ONS data also highlights the difficulty of measuring green employment. Jobs may be classified by industry, occupation, or employer activity, and each approach captures a different part of the economy. A finance analyst supporting renewable infrastructure, a software engineer optimising energy use, and an electrician installing heat pumps may all contribute to environmental goals in different ways.
Measurement is not a purely statistical problem. Policymakers use green jobs figures to assess industrial strategy, skills funding, regional development, and progress towards climate commitments. Employers use them to understand hiring competition and where capability gaps may emerge.
The latest estimate shows a decade of growth but not a straight line. The transition is producing employment, yet the 2024 dip shows how dependent green labour markets remain on investment cycles, demand confidence, public policy, grid capacity, procurement, and delivery skills. Employment will strengthen only if those parts of the system develop together.
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