LACI Green Jobs Impact Study
Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
HR&A has supported the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) since 2017 to drive investment and strategic partnerships across Los Angeles County to realize its goal of reaching 600,000 green jobs by 2050. HR&A’s collaboration with LACI began with a Green Jobs Study to quantify and characterize the green economy in Los Angeles County, essential for setting workforce goals and strategies.
Federal sequestration had eliminated national green jobs reporting since 2012, leaving Los Angeles County without critical data needed to understand its green economy and plan workforce strategies. LACI engaged HR&A to fill this information gap and assess green jobs impacts across Los Angeles County, Southern California, and California. We developed a rigorous analytical approach that combined third-party labor data assessment with market trend analysis to project future demand in the green economy. Our research also evaluated local workforce training programs’ capacity to support green economy growth, creating a comprehensive skills-gap analysis. To ensure our findings reflected real-world conditions, HR&A convened an interdisciplinary Advisory Group of leaders from public, private, nonprofit, and academic sectors who helped validate findings and refine recommendations.
Our 2021 report demonstrated that the green economy was significantly larger than widely understood, with one in twelve jobs in Los Angeles County being part of the green sector. However, our analysis revealed troubling equity gaps: these jobs were disproportionately held by white workers and overwhelmingly by men. HR&A developed targeted policy recommendations to support inclusive green job growth and identified new training models that could better serve underrepresented communities. The study also highlighted equitable development strategies that enabled LACI and workforce development organizations to redesign their programming to be more inclusive and responsive to actual market needs, positioning Los Angeles County to pursue green economic growth that benefits all residents.
- As Los Angeles Goes Green, Who Will Benefit? — Los Angeles Daily News
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