Green Jobs and Environmental Transition

Abstract

The concepts of the green labour market and green jobs can pertain to employment within a limited range of industries that offer environmental services. Nonetheless, it is more beneficial for policymakers to address the wider issue of how policies aimed at mitigating environmental externalities impact employment. Much of the literature focuses on direct job creation and only superficially addresses indirect job creation. The potential negative effects of green growth policies on labour productivity and employment costs are generally ignored. The methodology of the paper was a PRISMA systematic literature review (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta Analyses). In the future, more attention should also be paid to how labour markets function in different types of economies, especially in disadvantaged peripheral areas. Employment policy in Hungary is based on the jobs paradigm, i.e. the focus is on classical wage labour and job creation. Global trends suggest that there is likely to be a permanent imbalance between the number of wage jobs and the working-age population soon. For this reason, a sustainable and green labour market will become increasingly important in the future.