Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Green Job Postings in London
Exploring the Mayor of London’s priority sectors.
Jeff Dwan-O’Reilly, July 2025
Introduction
Understanding the scale and nature of green job demand is critical to supporting London’s transition to net zero. Yet traditional labour market data often fails to capture emerging or evolving green roles — particularly those that span multiple sectors or are undergoing transformation.
To overcome these challenges, this report uses online job postings data from Lightcast to provide a near real-time view of employer demand for green expertise and related roles in London. Postings are classified as being ‘green’ if they include any of the following; (1) a technical green skill, (2) a green job title, or (3) belong to a transition-critical occupation essential to decarbonisation or broader environmental goals (even if not explicitly requiring green expertise at present). This approach reflects the evolving nature of green work and ensures broader inclusion of roles undergoing green transformation. Further information on the experimental methodology can be found here.
This analysis contributes to City Hall’s broader green skills policy development strategy which aims to ensure London’s workforce is equipped to deliver a fair and effective transition.
This report is divided into 5 core sections, each analysing a different dimension of green job postings.
- Demand trends over time: Explores how demand for green expertise has evolved over time.
- Occupational analysis: Examines which occupations account for the most green job postings, and what roles have ‘greened’ most compared to pre-pandemic.
- Green expertise: Shows the most sought after green skills and titles and how their demand has evolved.
- Regional demand: Compares green skill demand across UK regions.
- Priority skill areas: Examines trends in postings relating to London’s priority green skill areas, including relevant occupations and regional specialisation.
Updated methodology and classification approach (July 2025)
Note: This latest iteration of GLA Economics’ green job postings analysis uses an updated methodology. As a result, some figures and findings may differ from those published in earlier GLA Economics reports. The key change is the inclusion of transition-critical occupations - such as plumbers and electricians - in the classification, regardless of whether the job advert explicitly references green expertise. More detail on the methodology can be found here.
Key points at a glance
Green job demand in London has continued to rise, despite broader labour market challenges. In the 12 months between July 2024 and June 2025, green roles accounted for 6.2% of all job adverts in the capital, an increase from 4.1% in 2019. Although demand for green softened post-pandemic in line with wider labour market dynamics, the absolute number of green postings has again begun to grow in 2025, indicating strong underlying demand for green expertise.
Demand for green roles have been resilient through recent labour market shifts. While green job advert numbers dipped over the course of 2023/24, they declined more slowly than overall vacancies. Demand remains well above pre-pandemic levels, underlining the strategic value employers place on green capabilities.
Green skills have been the main driver of growth in green job posting numbers. This points to sustainability expertise becoming more embedded across a wider range of occupations, reflecting a ‘greening’ workforce and rising demand for upskilling in roles not traditionally seen as green.
Green expertise is needed across a wide mix of roles. Employer demand appeared both among specialist sustainability roles - such as ecologists and carbon analysts - and broader occupations like engineers and project managers. Demand for transition-critical roles (e.g. electricians and plumbers) is also above pre-pandemic levels as of June 2025, though these roles were less likely to explicitly reference green skills in postings.
London is the UK’s largest source of green job opportunities, but with a distinctive profile. The capital recorded almost 78,000 green postings in the past year (July 2024–June 2025), the highest volume of any UK region. However, London’s green labour market is weighted toward professional and strategic roles - including a significant concentration in sustainable finance - aligned with its broader sectoral specialisms.
Section 1: Demand trends over time
How has demand for green jobs changed over time?
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Total green job postings
This section highlights key trends in overall green job posting numbers and how demand has evolved.
The share of total postings classified as green in London has risen strongly over time, underscoring its growing importance: Between July 2024 and June 2025, green job postings accounted for 6.2% of all adverts in the capital, rising to 6.4% as of mid-2025 — amongst the highest levels of recent years. This compares to a 4.1% average in 2019, reflecting a clear upward shift in proportional demand for green expertise related roles.
Employer demand for green roles has rebounded after a temporary slowdown: Following a dip in volumes during 2023/24 linked to broader labour market conditions, green postings began to recover in early 2025. By June 2025, monthly volumes had climbed back to around 7,500 unique monthly postings, pointing to renewed momentum in hiring for net zero-related roles.
Demand for green job postings has remained resilient despite wider recruitment challenges: In June 2025, green job posting numbers were 72.3% higher than their 2019 average. This is compared to a 11.6% increase in total job postings for London. Moreover, green demand has consistently remained higher than pre-pandemic levels despite broader hiring slowdowns, indicating sustained interest from employers.
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Compositional breakdown
This section breaks down the headline green job posting figures into its three overlapping components and presents a short analysis of the key trends emerging.
Green skills are the largest and fastest-growing component of green job demand. Over the past year (Jul 2024-Jun 2025), technical green skills appeared in 4.2% of all job adverts in London, making them the most common basis for classifying a role as green. Their prevalence has more than doubled since 2019 (up 106%), reflecting the rising demand for sustainability-related expertise across a broad spectrum of occupations, including many that retain conventional job titles.
Delivering sustainable solutions is a growing priority among employers. The growing share of job adverts explicitly referencing green expertise (green skills or job titles) suggests that more employers are actively looking for people who can help deliver environmentally sustainable solutions and services. This trend also suggests that net zero and sustainability are increasingly becoming an embedded part of hiring needs across the economy, rather than limited to specialist green activities or roles.
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Note: Each component of the green definition is calculated independently and therefore, totals should not be summed together as this would lead to double counting of postings in some instances (i.e. postings with a green job title that also expliclty require a green skill). This double counting issue has been corrected for in the combined headline estimates above.
Note: Each component of the green definition is calculated independently and therefore, totals should not be summed together as this would lead to double counting of postings in some instances (i.e. postings with a green job title that also expliclty require a green skill). This double counting issue has been corrected for in the combined headline estimates above.
Section 2: Occupational analysis
What occupations account for the largest number of green job postings and how are their green skill needs changing?
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This section explores how green postings are distributed among occupations and what share of an occupation’s postings explicitly included green expertise (i.e. technical green skills or job titles).
Green expertise appears across a wide range of occupations, but visibility varies.
Specialist green roles show the highest visibility of green expertise. Roles directly focused on sustainability - such as sustainability specialists, energy engineers or environmental scientists - frequently include specific green skills or titles in postings, reflecting their core environmental focus.
Transition-critical roles are often under-represented in green expertise analysis. Despite being vital for decarbonisation, skilled trades such as plumbers, HVAC technicians, and electricians rarely reference specific technical green skills in their job adverts. However, this is likely due to brief, transactional postings that focus on general occupational qualifications over detailed skill requirements.
Generalist roles contribute high volumes of green postings, despite lower prevalence of green expertise. Occupations such as project managers and policy analysts typically reference green expertise only in specific contexts, but contribute significantly to overall green demand due to their overall numbers.
Energy and engineering related roles have seen the largest percentage point growth in demand for expertise demand since 2019. This likely reflects rising need for technical skills in areas such as renewables and low-carbon infrastructure. Growth is also evident in policy and management roles, highlighting growing demand in strategic functions.
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Note: Analysis uses Lightcast's Occupational Taxonomy (LOT).
Note: 'Green expertise' refers to explicit references to green skills or job titles in postings.
Recruitment of top transitional-critical occupations
This section presents a deeper analysis of key transition-critical occupations.
Skilled trades are among the most sought-after transition-critical occupations. Roles such as electricians, plumbers, and automotive mechanics are essential to delivering London’s net zero goals. Engineers — particularly civil, electrical, and water — as well as sustainability specialists, also feature prominently, reflecting their role in decarbonising infrastructure, transport, and the built environment.
Demand remains elevated, despite a wider slowdown. While hiring has generally eased slightly over the past 12 months (Jul 2024-Jun 2025) for most transition-critical roles, demand for the majority has remained well above pre-pandemic levels. This is particularly the case for roofers, electricians, and sustainability specialists, possibly suggesting sustained momentum in green construction, retrofit, and emerging advisory services.
Job postings may understate demand for key trade roles. Skilled trades are often recruited through informal or alternative non-digital channels, making them less visible in job posting data relative to professional and office-based roles. This means the role of skilled trades and other construction roles critical to the transition, may be underrepresented, even as their strategic importance continues to grow.
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Note: Analysis uses Lightcast's Occupational Taxonomy (LOT).
Section 3: Top green skills and job titles
What are the most sought after green skills and job titles and how has demand for these changed?
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This section highlights the most in-demand green skills and job titles in London, offering insight into the specific expertise shaping workforce needs.
Demand is strongest for technical and strategic green skills. During the period Jul 2024-Jun 2025, the top green skills included building energy efficiency, understanding of ESG standards, net zero strategy, and renewable energy systems. Demand has also grown for electric vehicle (EV) expertise, retrofit and skills linked to the energy transition — all showing notable increases since 2019.
Sustainability-focused job titles are increasingly common. The most frequently advertised roles included sustainability consultants, water hygiene engineers, renewable energy managers, and carbon analysts. Demand for these positions has risen steadily, reflecting growing professionalisation within the green economy.
London’s green expertise is concentrated in high-skill, advisory roles. Taken together, the skills and job title data suggest London’s green labour market is particularly concentrated in professional, advisory, and strategic roles, reflecting the city’s wider occupational structure and positioning it as a hub for leadership in the green transition.
Green skills
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Green job titles
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Section 4: Regional demand
How does demand for green expertise in London compare to elsewhere in the UK?
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This section explores how green job posting levels vary across the UK, relative to London’s position.
London is a major hub for green job opportunities: In absolute terms, London leads the UK with around 77,800 green job postings recorded over the past 12 months (Jul 2024-Jun 2025). This reflects the city’s large and diverse labour market, as well as its growing role in climate finance, sustainability consulting, and green-focused innovation.
London’s share of green roles is lower than average as a result of its unique labour market profile. While London has the highest number of green job postings, it ranked towards the bottom in terms of share at 6.2%. In contrast, Scotland (9.1%) and England’s South West (7.5%) were among the highest. This divergence reflects London’s broader sectoral mix, which is typically less focused on decarbonisation relevant activities. However, for roles explicitly requiring green skills or titles, London ranked in the top half, suggesting particular concentrations in professionalised green expertise rather than the more trade-based transition-critical occupations.
Green demand has grown across all UK regions and nations. Since the pandemic, every UK region has seen an increase in the share of green job postings, with sharp growth during 2022–2023, followed by a slowdown in 2024 amid wider economic uncertainty and a general cooling of the labour market.
Different regions are developing distinct green specialisms. Job posting data suggests emerging regional specialisations within the UK’s green economy, explored further in Section 5.
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Section 5: Priority skill areas
How is recruitment activity changing for the Mayor’s priority green upskilling areas?
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In addition to facilitating and monitoring the broader transition to net zero, the Mayor is also focused on directly supporting a number of key areas, particularly in relation to up- and re-skilling opportunities. Among these are retrofit, heat pumps, battery and energy storage, electric vehicles (EVs), sustainable finance, ecology and biodiversity, and renewable energy. This section provides a more detailed analysis of recruitment activity related these key areas.
Trends over time
Green skill areas remain relatively niche but recruitment has grown rapidly post-pandemic: While job postings referencing each of these areas account for relatively few postings - particularly retrofit and heat pumps - they have all seen strong growth in recent years reflective of their emerging status. For instance, almost 1,600 London postings mentioned retrofit in the 12 months Jul 2024-Jun 2025 (0.13% of all postings), equivalent to a fivefold increase in both absolute and relative terms compared to 2019.
Emerging green skillsets show resilience amid wider slowdown: Although the number of postings has dipped in the past year amid a cooling labour market, most of these areas have maintained or grown their share of total recruitment activity, suggestive of their increasing strategic value to employers and resilience as emerging green specialisms.
Note: Key word search methodology and limitations
Many of London’s priority green sectors — such as retrofit, heat pumps, or energy storage — are still emerging and may not yet map cleanly onto established skills or job titles as tagged by Lightcast. To address this, the analysis in this section takes a different approach: it uses detailed keyword searches of raw job posting text to identify recruitment activity referencing these areas.
Unlike the earlier sections of this report, this method includes all postings that mention relevant terms, regardless of whether Lightcast has tagged them as having green roles or skills. This allows for a broader and more inclusive view of labour demand, particularly where taxonomy-based tagging may lag behind real-world developments or inconsistently capture niche, fast-evolving areas.
While care has been taken to refine the keyword lists and filter results, this method may still pick up postings only tangentially related to a given area. As such, this analysis should be seen as experimental and indicative, with scope for refinement as both the methodology and labour market continue to evolve.
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Top occupations requiring key green skillsets
- Priority green skill areas span a broad mix of occupations, reflecting an economy-wide shift towards sustainability. While occupational composition varies by skill area, each features across a wide spectrum of roles — from technical trades and engineering to management, consulting, and sales. This diversity highlights the breadth of talent needed for the transition to net zero.
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Regional comparison
Regional strengths evident across the UK reflect existing industrial composition and natural assets. A location quotient analysis of job postings reveals that Scotland has a strong concentration in renewable energy and energy storage, while the South West stands out for biodiversity-related activity and heat pumps. Similarly, the South East shows above-average focus on electric vehicles — all of which reflect underlying regional strengths.
London is a national leader in sustainable finance. With a location quotient score of 2.7, sustainable finance postings are nearly three times more concentrated in London than the UK average mirroring the city’s broader economic specialisation in finance and professional services. In proportional terms, London also accounts for over 40% of all such roles nationally.
Despite average specialisation, London’s shear scale underpins demand volumes across all skill areas: For most priority green skill areas, London is generally in line with, or less specialised than, other regions due to its broad and diverse labour market. However, it still plays a significant role in absolute terms. For instance, while its relative specialisation in retrofit is around the national average, London still accounts for nearly 15% of all retrofit-related postings in the UK — more than any other region.
Note: These green definitions and statistics are experimental and are subject to revision.
Note: Regional specialisation methodology
The regional specialisation scores for each priority green upskilling area are calculated using a location quotient (LQ) methodolgy. This approach reveals the extent to which a particular region has a unique concentration of a particular skill area relative to the national average. Scores over 1 suggest a higher concentration that the UK average, while score below one indicate a lower degree of regional specialisation.
Example calculation:
Between July 2024 to June 2025, approximately 1,600 job postings in London included specific retrofit terms in their descriptions, equivalent to approximely 15% of all retrofit postings in the UK, and 0.12% of total postings in London. At the UK level, there were approximately 10,200 job postings that included reference to retrofit, which is also equivalent to approximatley 0.12% of all UK postings.
Dividing the ‘share of total regional postings with retrofit’ by the ‘share of total national postings with retrofit’ reveals the LQ score for London retrofit. LQ = 0.12/0.12 = 1
This figure suggests that the concentration of retrofit expertise being sought in job postings is about in line with the UK average.
Methodology
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Background
Defining and analysing trends in ‘green jobs’ presents a number of important challenges. Among them is that traditional labour market data sources and taxonomies — such as the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) and Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) systems — often struggle to capture the evolving and cross-cutting nature of green employment. This is particularly the case for new or transforming roles that are central to the net zero transition but are not yet well-represented in these frameworks. As a result, it can be difficult for policymakers to accurately assess workforce needs and design targeted skills interventions.
To address these challenges, this report applies a novel methodology to online job postings data provided by Lightcast. While the approach remains experimental, the near real-time nature and granularity of job postings data provide valuable insight into employer demand for green relevant roles and expertise — particularly in areas that are otherwise hard to monitor using traditional data sources.
Overview of classification approach
Building on Lightcast’s original working definitions of green job titles and skills, GLA Economics has further refined a methodology for identifying green job postings drawing on extensive third-party research, internal analysis of job descriptions, and insights from the evolving policy landscape.
This updated approach recognises that green jobs cannot always be identified through job titles alone. While some roles are explicitly labelled as ‘green’ - or contain similar key identifying words - many others retain conventional titles but are increasingly evolving to include sustainability-related responsibilities and technical green skills. For this reason, the methodology classifies green jobs not only by how roles are described (titles), but also by the skills they require.
Additionally, it also includes those occupations that are considered structurally critical to delivering the net zero transition ambitions, even if they do not currently explicitly require green expertise (e.g. green skills or job title) in their descriptions. Moreover, these roles - such as skilled trades - are among the least likely to have detailed job descriptions generally, and therefore, an approach relying on identifying green skills and titles alone would likely significantly understate their actual green expertise requirements, despite their known importance to the transition process.
Therefore, as set out in the figure below, the framework used to identify green job postings is based on the presence of any one or more of the following:
Green skills: Specific technical knowledge sets, competencies, or tools related to sustainability, decarbonisation, environmental protection, or climate resilience (e.g. carbon accounting, solar installation, biodiversity management). These reflect the growing demand for green capabilities embedded across a broad range of job roles.
Green job titles: Job postings where the title itself clearly contains green-related terms (e.g. sustainability consultant, wind turbine technician). These titles often signal roles that are purpose designed for activities in the green economy and directly linked to net zero or environmental goals.
Transition-critical occupations: Broader roles - such as electricians, heating engineers, or architects - that are recognised as being essential to achieving the net zero transition, even if they do not currently explicitly feature green-related language in their associated job advertisements. While not all of these roles are likely to be currently engaged in net zero activities, their inclusion recognises the importance of upskilling and occupational transformation across the existing workforce.
In short, any job posting that contains at least one of these components - a green skill, a green job title, or is part of a transition-critical occupation - is considered ‘green’ for the purpose of this analysis.
Note: In this report, references to ‘green expertise’ typically relate to job postings that explicitly mention green skills or job titles.
Limitations: An incomplete and iterative analysis
While this methodology offers a deeper and more nuanced insight into the demand for green jobs and skills in London, it is unlikely to provide a complete picture. Green jobs span a wide and evolving spectrum, and it is possible that some relevant job titles, skills, or occupations have not yet been captured within Lightcast’s current taxonomies. Similarly, the classification of transition-critical occupations is a developing area and may not yet fully reflect the breadth of roles supporting the net zero transition. Additionally, it is important to note the limitations inherent to job postings data itself (see detailed discussion below). This latest iteration of the analysis (July 2025) uses an updated methodology compared to previous publications and in so doing classifies a higher share of postings as being green. GLA Economics’ innovative classification of green job postings will continue to be refined as labour market dynamics, occupational standards, and environmental policy priorities evolve. As such, estimates may change further with future iterations of this analysis.
Note: Green definitions (skills, titles, and transition-critical occupations)
Definitions: All definitions used in this report related to green job postings - including all 600+ skills, 440+ job titles, and 50+ transition-critical occupations - are set out in the definitions and additional resources section, at the end of this report.
Note: Job postings data - Methodology and Limitations
Collection methodology: Lightcast scrapes the internet daily for unique new job advertisements, including searching 1,000+ online UK job boards and company websites. These job adverts are then deduplicated to ensure that only one posting is counted for each opening, regardless of how many places it is advertised.
The information retrieved from these unique adverts then goes through a proprietry standardisation process that classifies and tags postings according to a number of data variables including location, occupation, years of experience, advertised salary, skills sought, qualifications, and any other type of relevant information that can be extracted from the advert. More information is available here.
Limitations: There are also challenges and some important caveats to bear in mind when using job posting data, including:
Labour market comprehensiveness: Online job postings do not capture the full scope of labour market recruitment activity as not all job vacancies are advertised online. Some opportunities are only advertised internally within a business, while others are advertised by word-of-mouth or locally only (e.g., in shop windows). Where a single job posting references a number of similar vacancies (e.g., X5 retail cashiers), it is only counted as one unique posting and can underestimate the true number of vacancies.
Skewed towards higher level occupations: Job postings tend to be somewhat skewed towards professional occupations, which are more likely to be advertised online relative to more technical and elementary roles. As such, it may underrepresent some occupations in the labour market (such as those related to hospitality services, construction, and creative industries) relative to the true number of jobs, which traditionally have been advertised through other channels.
Captures job growth, churn, and failed recruitment: Recruitment activity from job postings data not only captures new job growth but also labour market churn (the refilling of existing jobs that have recently become vacant). Indications of high levels of churn may suggest a transient workforce or a sector that is struggling in terms of retaining its staff. Differing levels of churn across occupations may in part explain some of the differences observed in terms of top recruited occupations when compared to job number estimates. Job posting numbers also capture failed recruitment – where an advertisement is posted but fails to attract a suitable candidate for the role.
Inconsistent descriptions: The content of the information listed in job posting descriptions - while often rich - can be inconsistent. For example, some employers explicitly outline the skills and education requirements for a given job role, while others may list only those essential to performing in the role, or consider them implied in the role’s job title. As such, analysis is dependent on the quality of the data/information contained in the original adverts.
Geographic location: In some cases, the location of a job posting is too high-level to be matched to a specific location, such as ‘England’. Similarly, many jobs are advertised at a ‘London’ level but cannot be assigned to a specific local authority area within the capital.
Volatility: New job posting volumes can be volatile month-to-month and are subject to seasonal trends in recruitment activity. As such, all analysis of time-series presented in this report uses a 3-month moving average to show a more stable trend over time. Backend improvements to data collection and tagging processes from the data provider may also result in some volatility and changes compared to previous iterations of this report.
Definitions and Resources
Have a question or some feedback?
Please contact Jeff Dwan-O’Reilly or Monet Durieux at GLA Economics.
