Employment in and through environmental protection : a literature report

Abstract

"In the Federal Republic of Germany discussions surrounding the employment effects of environmental protection are an 'evergreen' which has passed through several development phases. Calculations of net employment effects of environmental protection at national level show, however, that it can not be regarded either as a 'job killer' or as 'job sensation'. The low, but clearly positive balance of employment effects of environmental protection must, however, be clearly distinguished from employment in and through environmental protection (employment induced by environmental protection), which is estimated at just under a million jobs (1994). This in turn can not be a yardstick of the achieved ecologisation of economising, as in determining employment induced by environmental protection it is not possible to take into consideration all of the areas of ecological relevance. The further development of employment in and through environmental protection is closely linked with the transition to integrated environmental protection, though Germany is only at the beginning of this process which can again have positive and negative employment effects. In any case in this respect calculating employment induced by environmental protection in the way it has been done so far is becoming increasingly difficult. Efforts and demands for (further) calculability of its extent refer to the package made up of the policy areas of environmental policy and employment policy (or labour market policy) in the controversy surrounding employment effects of environmental protection. In order to be able to utilise selectively any possible synergy effects of environment and employment policy, what is primarily needed is not changes in statistical survey concepts, but (effect-related) research into the question as to what labour market policy has done so far for environmental protection, what it can do in principle and what it should do in Germany in the future." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Peemüller, G. (1999): Beschäftigung im und durch Umweltschutz. Ein Literaturbericht. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 32, No. 3, p. 331-350.