Since the mid-1990s, green jobs in San Diego County have grown more than twice as fast as the overall average and weathered the past two recessions better than most other industries, according to a report released Tuesday by Next10, a research organization focused on the environmental industry.
According to the report, there were 20,500 “green economy” workers in San Diego County at the beginning of 2010 — the most-recent year for comprehensive data — compared to just 12,400 in 1995.
Those jobs — including solar-panel installers, wind-turbine manufacturers, biofuel developers, energy conservation consultants, recycling collectors, wastewater processors and “clean-building” designers — grew at an average pace of 4 percent per year, compared to 1.8 percent for the overall workforce.
Even at the depths of the Great Recession, green jobs held steady in San Diego County. Only 300 jobs were lost — a 1 percent drop in employment — that compared to a 4.5 percent drop in the county’s total workforce.
“What’s encouraging about the report is that even in the recession, things did better in the green economy than the overall economy,” said Doug Henton, chief executive of Collaborative Economics, which produced the report for San Francisco-based Next10.
Statewide, green jobs declined 3 percent during the recession, compared to an overall decline in employment of 7 percent.
Many of the jobs in the report — which focused solely on private companies — were tied to major utilities, such as Sempra Energy. In San Diego, more than 8,500 workers were involved in energy generation, with more than 4,300 in air and environmental quality and nearly 1,500 in water and wastewater processing.
But a number of workers were in smaller startups that have sprouted over the past decade as California ramps up its drive toward sustainable energy.
A study last week by Connect — a nonprofit support group for local technology firms — counted more than 460 clean-tech firms in San Diego County. Connect said that from January 2009 through last September, such startups hired more than 300 new workers. More recently, the solar technology firm Soitech opened shop in San Diego County, with the intention of adding 450 jobs.
At a time when venture capital is hard to find, some firms have managed to attract the funding intended to help them expand. Last summer, for instance, OneRoof Energy, a solar-energy firm in San Diego, gained $50 million in funding, led by China’s Hanwha International. But Next10 warns that lack of capital is one of the biggest threats facing the industry.
“Without the ability to access capital, businesses cannot make needed equipment upgrades, expand production or make other necessary investments that would support broader economic growth,” the report concluded.