Green studies: an unsustainable bubble

By Etienne Campens (Centre d’études et de recherche du groupe ESC Clermont, centre associé régional du Céreq pour la région Auvergne), Olivier Aznar (CEMAGREF, UMR Metafort, Aubière), Thibaud Mazerm (Centre d’études et de recherche du groupe ESC Clermont). Training and Employment, n° 95, 2011, download Green studies an unsustainable bubble.
Students completing environment-related courses are encountering greater difficulties in finding employment than their peers in other disciplines. The reason is that the supply of new graduates exceeds firms’ requirements. However, this general observation conceals differences depending on the level and content of the courses.
The growth in environmental and green jobs has not been sufficient to absorb the ever-increasing numbers of graduates in this area. In 2008 the number of jobs in environment-related activities totalled 405,000, an increase of 2.9% over 2007 compared with an increase of 0.6% for the French labour market as a whole. Despite the economic crisis, the sector has remained very dynamic: the number of jobs rose very rapidly by an average of 3% per year between 2004 and 2008, compared with a little less than 1% for the economy as a whole. Nevertheless, having declined between 2005 and 2007, the number of people seeking employment in environment-related activities rose again in 2008 (+1.8%), outstripping the general rise in the number of people seeking work (+ 0.7 %). In 2009, the deteriorating economic situation led to a sharp increase in the number of people seeking work in environment-related activities (+ 27 %).
At the same time, there has been a veritable explosion in the number of environment-related courses, which in turn has led to a massive influx of young graduates in this area into the labour market. In 2004, 10,700 young people completed environment-related courses; by the beginning of the academic year 2007-2008, no fewer than 50,000 students in schools and universities had registered for the final year of courses in the area. On graduation, these students further swelled the increasing numbers of people seeking environmental and green jobs, thereby reducing the likelihood of them finding employment. A real discrepancy is emerging between the aspirations of students and course designers, on one hand, and the reality of the labour market, on the other. Download Green studies an unsustainable bubble.