Scotland Leads UK in Green Job Growth

Scotland continues to lead the way in the creation of green jobs, with new data showing the number of green roles advertised has tripled since 2021.

The fourth iteration of PwC’s Green Jobs Barometer sees Scotland take the top spot again for the highest proportion of green job adverts at 5.6%, higher than the UK average of 3.3%, and putting Scotland ahead of Northern Ireland (3.9%) and London (3.7%).

The Barometer, which tracks the movement in green jobs creation, job loss, carbon intensity of employment, and worker sentiment, also showed that Scotland recorded the highest increase in the volume of green job adverts as a share of total job adverts this year – up by 1.6%.

The total number of green roles advertised in Scotland over the last year was around 28,700, approximately 2,200 (8.3%) more than 2023 and three times the number of roles first recorded by PwC in 2021.

However, London retains the lead in the number of green jobs advertised, with over 58,500 available in 2024.

PwC’s claim that the research reaffirms Scotland’s position as a green employment hub, with the nation’s high proportion of green jobs having a greater ripple effect on the wider job market, as the findings show the so-called ‘green jobs multiplier’ in Scotland rose to 2.8 in 2024.

This means that for every ten green jobs created, an additional twenty-eight are created elsewhere in the economy.

This year’s Barometer revealed a significant surge in green job adverts across the UK, despite a 22.5% contraction in the overall job market, with the share of green job adverts as a proportion of total job adverts increasing to 3.3% in 2024, adding nearly 23,000 available green vacancies.

PwC argued that this surge in green job adverts reflects growing optimism about the UK’s net zero transition, with confidence highest in regions like Northern Ireland and Scotland, bolstered by renewable energy projects.

Those projects include the transformation of the defunct Chapelcross nuclear power site into a hydrogen hub, a £6.3 million investment into the EV charging network across Ayrshire and the Glasgow City Region, and last week the beginning of construction on a £9.1m project in Aberdeen on a manufacturing facility for green energy technologies. 

These kinds of renewable energy projects have seen green jobs adverts spike across almost all sectors in Scotland, from mining and quarrying (+32.2%), to energy (+16.3%) as well as information and communication (+4.4%), and construction (+3.3%).

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“Scotland continues to stand out when it comes to the creation of green jobs in key sectors,” said Jason Morris, regional market leader at PwC Scotland.

“With triple the number of green roles advertised in 2024 compared with 2021, and the highest volume of green job ads of all the UK nations and regions, Scotland remains synonymous with the energy transition.

“There are several reasons to be positive about the future direction of Scotland when it comes to its role in creating a green economy. The inception and location of GB Energy and the opportunities around a number of renewable technologies – particularly fixed and floating offshore wind – and their supply chain requirements, are positive signals for future job creation.”

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