What industries really want from green talent, and aren’t getting

The latest GEURS 2025 analysis shifts focus from regional differences to sector-specific expectations, using recruiter survey data and LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report 2024 to examine how green skills are valued across industries. The results reveal green skills are not defined or demanded the same way in every sector.

This third and final installment in Emerging’s three-part series builds on previous analysis that explored recruiter mindsets through a global and regional lens. Article one examined the four dominant hiring philosophies based on national-level expectations. Article two validated those patterns through OECD indicators, showing how economic and environmental conditions influence what employers prioritize. This article zooms in even further, looking inside the labor market itself sector by sector and job by job to ask: where exactly is the demand rising, and what kinds of skills are missing?

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Not all sectors want the same kind of green hire

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Overall, 74% of recruiters say institutions should lead on green skills training. But beyond that consensus, there’s sharp variation in how much trust different sectors place in academia to deliver them and what skills matter most.

• In engineering roles, technical and analytical skills rank highest, followed by policy and management understanding. Recruiters expect applied knowledge that can support industry modernization.
• IT roles show similar preferences, with strong emphasis on technical proficiency and digital systems knowledge. This group is the most confident in institutions’ ability to deliver sustainability education.
• In business roles soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and sustainability advocacy are increasingly prioritized. Recruiters express skepticism about institutional readiness and seek graduates who can inspire change and act as catalysts within organizations.

Technical proficiency is the common denominator across all sectors. But second-tier priorities, whether related to compliance, adaptability, or domain-specific sustainability fluency, differ. These gaps are where education strategies must adapt.

Industry green hiring trends reveal more about employer priorities than expected

Beyond traditional sectoral categories, Emerging’s data analysis goes further to identify five hiring models that shape green hiring. These mindsets are not tied to any single industry but instead cut and clustered across roles, reflecting deeper philosophies about what sustainability talent should look like. 

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These five hiring models aren’t theoretical, they are shaping real hiring decisions today. And they present a crucial challenge to educators: you can’t train for all of them at once, you have to choose.

Universities and training programs must intentionally align their green skills curricula with the hiring model that fits the role they are preparing students for. For example, a program training sustainability analysts for the tech sector should lean into the Data-Driven Specialist model, prioritizing technical depth, lifecycle analytics, and precision. In contrast, a program focused on green transformation consultants in HR should follow the Sustainability Advocate model, developing communication, stakeholder engagement, and change leadership.

These five models often coexist within the same industry, but their differences show why a one-size-fits-all education model cannot deliver a workforce that meets real-world sustainability needs.

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Some industries are racing ahead in green hiring while others are stalling

Emergings’ recruiter survey offered a forward-looking view of where green skills are most valued, and now, LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report 2024 confirms these patterns in real time. Drawing from a dataset of over one billion professionals worldwide, the report shows that momentum around green hiring is indeed accelerating, but unevenly. While some sectors are charging ahead, others are lagging behind, revealing a widening gap in how industries are preparing for the green transition.

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Labor market data from LinkedIn not only confirms Emergings’ sectoral findings, it also mirrors the deeper hiring mindsets revealed in the five-cluster model. 

• In the technology sector, for instance, the explosive growth of sustainability reporting skills in Germany and India (up 70–78%) reflects the rise of Strategic Integrators: employers seeking policy fluency and compliance-oriented skills to meet new climate disclosure requirements like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
  
  
• At the same time, fast-growing demand for technical skills in carbon management, lifecycle analysis, and energy optimization confirms the influence of Data-Driven Specialists, especially in IT and analytics-heavy roles. Even marketing and communications, included in this cluster through the model, is increasingly tied to data storytelling and sustainability metrics, validating a broader, analytics-first mindset that crosses departmental lines.
  
  
• Meanwhile, certifications such as ISO 14001 and NEBOSH are gaining traction in construction and manufacturing, aligning with the Independent Practitioners profile. These candidates rely on job-embedded learning and context-specific skills over formal degrees, often in QA/QC, HSE, and compliance functions.
  
  
• In contrast, the Sustainability Advocates cluster is visible in HR job postings, where soft skills like stakeholder engagement and change management continue to grow in importance. And in engineering-heavy sectors, the continued rise of energy design and environmental systems expertise echoes the expectations of Technical Environmentalists, who seek hands-on specialists with deep system-level understanding.

Together, these hiring patterns reinforce a critical insight: green talent isn’t monolithic. It reflects competing logics about how sustainability should be integrated into work, and if education providers don’t recognize these distinctions, the skills gap will continue to widen.

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To fix the green skills gap, we have to work through the layers

This final analysis brings together three dimensions: behavioral data from recruiters, structural drivers across countries and regions, and real-world labor market signals. Together, they offer a comprehensive diagnosis of the green skills gap. 

What emerges is a clear call to action. Green skills are not a single curriculum, but a constellation of role-specific, sector-aligned, and locally contextual competencies. Institutions that respond with agility, modular programs, employer-aligned training, and inclusive on-ramps, will shape the next generation of climate talent. Those that don’t will  risk becoming irrelevant.

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Contact Emerging to explore sector-specific insights, recruiter profiles, and actionable data that can help align your workforce strategy with real market demand.