For good reason, not a day passes without our political leaders -- from NJ Assembly members, to Gov. Corzine, to President-elect Obama -- telling us about their "green-collar" jobs initiatives. Many of their ideas are nebulous or early-stage now, but there are real opportunities too, especially in New Jersey.

New Jersey residents who are losing their jobs, planning a career change, or entering the workforce for the first time, have lots of specific options.

For one thing, New Jersey is faring better than the nation in the current recession. We've lost 27,200 private sector jobs this year though October, far less than "our share" of the nation's 1,200,000 jobs losses this year. (NJ has a diverse economy, is strong in the less-cyclical health care industries, and has avoided the worst of the housing crash.)

NJ has other natural advantages at creating green jobs: proximity to the nation's financial center, strong New Jersey banks, transport & export infrastructure, a tremendous continuing-education infrastructure (including our vast and high quality community college network), and proximity to the progressive U.S. Northeast (which has developed the nation's first Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, for instance). New Jersey's Commission on Science and Technology in Trenton estimates that there are about 500 sustainable or green businesses in the state. Some of them are mentioned within our Links - Business section.

Even better, our NJ policymakers probably are working harder than leaders in other states to lay a path for green employment.

Given all these advantages, NJ workers in almost every field have opportunities to transition to green-collar jobs in the next year -- whatever type of shirt your wear, there's one with a green collar. We know this in part because we see many job openings as we search through our links. Many of these links are to trade associations and networks, so dig deeper into the links if you're in the job market.

Of course, the greatest number of environmental jobs openings are for engineers and other scientifically-trained people. Even a quick key-word search of the career websites will show this. But green-collar jobs go far beyond this. For instance:

• Sales. Job boards showed us numerous opportunities, in areas ranging from customer sales support (at Parsippany's Niagara Conservation, which sells water & energy conservation products), to solar sales rep (at Clear Skies Solar, and others). And there are numerous green "sales" listings for commuters to New York City, even looking at just one job board (Treehugger).
• Financial Services. There are opportunities for financial planners (example: First Affirmative), investment professionals (here for instance), and bank workers (the Northeast's first truly green bank, e3, is now organizing in Philadelphia), to name a few.
• Entrepreneurial. A new sustainable business incubator has opened in New Jersey, at Fairleigh Dickinson. Numerous New Jersey business incubators are listed here.
• Organizational and Non-Profit. Opportunities across the spectrum, from entry level citizen organization jobs (such as NJ Citizen Action in Rahway), to Pollution Prevention Coordinator (Clean Ocean Action in Highlands, NJ - listed on SustainableBusiness.com), to Executive Director (Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in Medford, NJ - listed on EcoEmploy.com), to name a tiny cross-section.
• Government. There are always openings. Right now we see listings at the NJ Highlands Council, elsewhere as a planner, and myriad others at the state, county and local levels.
• Urban Young Workers. Note, for instance, Newark's Green Collar Apprenticeship Program (GreenCAP).
  

Volunteering and Internships. There are scores of high-quality volunteer and internship opportunities across many of the organizations in our Links list -- go through them one-by-one. Many were created to transmit clear "employable" skills. Every job seeker who is able should take advantage of these opportunities while searching for full-time paid employment.

It's worth pointing out that Monster has just launched a Green Careers center, in coordination with ecoAmerica and the Environmental Defense Fund. There are also a growing number of green career guides and idea books available on Amazon.com.

If you or a friend of yours isn't making headway in the search for a green job, let me know, and I'll keep our eyes wide open for listings as we speak with people and search through our sources.


(Hat tip to Derek Harper of the Press of Atlantic City, who got us thinking more about New Jersey's green collar future.)

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