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With tens of millions of people unemployed or underemployed, and with blue-chip industries from automotive to banking in distress, the American worker sorely needs help. New funding for job training provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) may be a well-timed boon to American workers.

While ARRA money for training will not by itself put millions of unemployed people back to work, $787 billion of ARRA funding is designed to stabilize the economy, create long term growth, and provide a substantial boost to local and state programs charged with retraining people for jobs in a 21st Century economy. The North Country received $1.9 million in ARRA job training funds. In order to put this funding to the best possible use we need to predict accurately where the jobs will be when the recession ends and what job skills will be needed.

In contrast to the almost daily gloomy media reports about the nation’s economy and record job losses, jobs in the green sector have been rays of hope in an otherwise bleak employment year. According to a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts on the clean-energy economy, the United States' green job market significantly outpaced the overall job market in recent years, growing 9.1 percent compared to just 3.7 percent during the previous 10-year span. The study found that green job growth surpassed traditional job growth in 38 states and the District of Columbia between 1998 and 2007.

According to the report, the clean-energy economy now accounts for 770,000 jobs at more than 68,000 businesses throughout the United States. Pew found that Colorado, Oregon, and Tennessee are the leaders in creating green jobs, with the largest and fastest-growing jobs in the clean-energy sector. Pew also found that at least seven states and the District have gained employment opportunities in the green energy sector during the recession.

While it is unlikely that green jobs alone will bring the American economy out of the current recession, they will be a major source of employment as the United States begins to address the issues of global warming and energy independence. For a region to participate fully in the “greening” of the economy, it is essential to identify the occupations and skills that will be most in demand.

The emerging green economy provides us with unprecedented opportunities -- from lowering energy and transportation costs to creating jobs with challenging and fulfilling career ladders. In order for this to happen, however, we must build a "gateway" that connects people and places to these opportunities.

To that end, the North Country Regional Workforce Investment Board created The North Country Green Collar Jobs Initiative with the intent of organizing stakeholders around the opportunities and resources to create green-collar jobs in the local economy.

The Initiative is a partnership of community organizations, businesses, community colleges, vocational schools, labor groups, sustainability organizations, and environmental and workforce development non-profit organizations. It will identify employment and job training opportunities to prepare workers for emerging green jobs related to sustainability, natural resource conservation, and environment enhancement technologies to meet needs in our local economy.

The target audience for a new green collar jobs program will be consistent with target groups included in the ARRA (the funding source for the Initiative). These include unskilled, unemployed, or underemployed individuals, and incumbent workers requiring updated training for new technologies.

Green jobs and green industries offer workers new opportunities and career pathways. Most may require additional training and certification. Additionally, every region differs in its needs for the various green occupations. Without a proper roadmap, missteps might waste time, money, and energy pursuing the wrong occupations. The North Country Green Collar Jobs Initiative will help guide workers to jobs that will be most beneficial for themselves and their communities.