Will labour shortages and skills mismatches throw sand in the gears of the green transition in Belgium?

Mikkel Barslund, Wouter Gelade () and Geoffrey Minne
Additional contact information
Wouter Gelade: Economics and Research Department, National Bank of Belgium
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Catherine Fuss

No 459, Working Paper Research from National Bank of Belgium

Abstract: A significant reallocation of labour towards “green” jobs will be crucial for the transition to a decarbonised economy. Skills mismatches challenge the feasibility of this reallocation, particularly with many developed countries also facing substantial labour shortages. This paper analyses the factors that facilitate transitions into green shortage jobs in Belgium, with a particular emphasis on skills and the skill distance between workers’ profiles and the skills required for these jobs. Our data combines longitudinal data of the labour force surveys, international classifications for green jobs, and regional classifications for shortage jobs. Half of green employment is in shortage occupations, underlining that this category may be pivotal both for economic development and for the achievement of climate objectives. Technical skills emerge as key across all education levels. Furthermore, we find that skills mismatches with respect to green shortage jobs are large, but the observed transitions to these jobs tend to involve less skill disruption than the green transition might require. Transitions from inactivity or unemployment to a green shortage job present even greater challenges and necessitate upskilling. Green shortage jobs are shown to differ significantly from other categories in terms of income, required skills, sector of activity, and training needs. Promoting labour mobility and vocational or on-the-job training is expected to yield substantial economic benefits in both the short and long term.

Keywords: Green jobs; Labour shortage; Skills; Occupational mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J24 J62 Q52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2024-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-com, nep-eec and nep-eff
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nbb.be/nl/articles/will-labour-shortag ... n-transition-belgium (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbb:reswpp:202410-459

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Research from National Bank of Belgium Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().