The green transition is reshaping the labour market – not only by creating new roles but also by changing the nature of existing ones. As Europe steps up efforts toward a sustainable and circular economy, understanding how labour markets are evolving becomes increasingly important.
CEDEFOP’s Skills-OVATE (Online Vacancy Analysis Tool for Europe) provides real-time insight into these shifts, using hundreds of millions of online job advertisements (OJAs) to identify trends in occupations, skills and sectors across 32 countries. National authorities, training providers and employment services can use Skills-OVATE to:
- Spot skill gaps and anticipate emerging green profiles
- Align training curricula and qualification design
- Inform career guidance and job matching services
The data also sheds light on how the green and digital transitions often go together—AI and data management are increasingly embedded in green occupations, underscoring the need for integrated skills strategies in support of twin transition.
Exploring green demand across occupations, sectors and regions
The tool includes dedicated dashboards that allow users to explore the greenness and green pervasiveness of occupations, sectors and regions. ‘Green pervasiveness’ refers to the presence of green skills in job ads, while ‘greenness’ reflects how intensively these skills are embedded in specific roles or sectors.
Users can apply filters by year, country, sector or occupation to identify where green skills are growing, where they are less common and how these trends evolve over time. The data is drawn from diverse online sources, including public employment portals and private job platforms and structured according to international classifications (ISCO, NACE, NUTS-2).
Key findings from the tool:
Sectors with the highest pervasiveness of green skills:
- Construction
- Mining and quarrying
- Electricity gas, steam and air conditioning supply
- Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
- Technical, engineering and R&D
Among the top 50 green skills identified in job ads are:
- Corporate and social responsibility
- Environmental engineering
- Green computing
- Natural history
- Chemistry and environmental science
- Greenness varies across Europe’s regions, with national labour markets in the west and north showing the highest concentrations of green skills.
Contributing to EU Green Week 2025 goals
As EU Green Week 2025 promotes circular solutions and greener futures, Cedefop positions Skills-OVATE as a vital tool for policy and practice. Developed in collaboration with Eurostat, Skills-OVATE turns labour market data into meaningful intelligence. New use cases for Skills-OVATE analysis in frontline green transition sectors such as energy and construction can be developed in the future to strengthen Europe’s ability to deliver on its climate, carbon, environment and sustainability goals and targets.
