Green Jobs on the Rise in the Arab Region

By Maximilian Malawista
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 18 2025 – In the Arab region, a thought-to-be oil oasis, green jobs constitute 29 percent of energy sector roles, and 23 percent of the oil and gas sector. These numbers signify a push towards sustainable business and practices, with the Arab region striving to get away from oil, in their advancement towards the completion of the SDGs on time for 2030.

New primary data from the UNESCWA Skills Monitor shows that the entire region is on a steady upward trajectory in terms of the share of green jobs in the online job market space. According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asis (UNESCWA), these postings only consist of 5.06 percent of postings as of 2024, but it represents significant growth from just around 3.5 percent in 2021.

The total share of green jobs by country in the Arab region, and the United States by comparison. Credit: Maximilian Malawista

Saudi Arabia has led this shift in sustainable energy roles with green jobs accounting for 6.22 percent of their job market. This movement reflects their significant investment into economic diversification and green initiatives in line with Saudi Vision 2030, which closely mirrors the UN 2030 agenda.

In Qatar and Oman the rates are lower, with green jobs comprising 4.59 percent and 3.53 percent of their respective job markets, followed by the rest of the region shortly behind. In contrast, a leading share of green jobs globally, the United States, features 11.40 percent, which is 7.55 percent higher than the average of 3.85 percent set by the Arab region. These numbers appear not to be linked by wealth as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt are below Qatar in energy roles, while the UAE has a 514 billion nominal GDP followed by Egypt with a 396 billion nominal GDP compared to Qatar’s 213 billion nominal GDP.

Green job integration

In the oil and gas sectors, Saudi Arabia leads again with 28 percent of their roles being green, followed by Oman (22.5 percent), Qatar (16 percent) and the UAE (15 percent). Data from UNESCWA shows that managerial and engineering positions account for the majority of occupations with the highest green demand in the Arab region. The top six jobs leading with the highest green shares are: project managers, health and safety engineers, health safety and environmental managers, electrical engineers, construction engineers, and civil engineers. The presence of engineering jobs with the highest combined share of green demand represents the Arab region’s full push to turn its infrastructure into a green oasis.

In the United States, the composition across specific industries is different, with technician roles for energy production and the environment being much higher in share than that of engineering roles. As UNESCWA noted in their brief: “These differences reflect diverse national approaches to sustainability, shaped by energy policies and strategic investments in green technologies.”

From only one year ago, green jobs within the energy sector in the Arab region represented 23.26 percent of the entire market of energy, however this number jumped up to 29.10 percent, marking a 5.93 percent jump in a very short amount of time.

The Arab region, as the report reiterates, leads in energy transformation across the oil and gas sectors. This push represents multiple nations — mostly Gulf Cooperation Council members — pushing for economic diversification away from majority oil-dominated economies, especially in Saudi Arabia. In these countries’ pursuits of further economic diversification, the result will be the creation of massive quantities of green energy roles, which will only increase at a faster rate to the point of a near carbon-zero future.

UNESCWA proposed four policy recommendations which seek to encourage green job growth:

• • Boost green investments and corporate sustainability – by expanding green bonds, medium and small sized enterprise funding, and sustainability linked loans for clean technology and renewable energy.

• • Enhance education and workforce development for green jobs – integrating sustainability into national curriculums, expand vocational and technical education and training programs, provide re-skilling initiatives for workers within high-carbon industries.

• • Integrate green jobs into national development strategies – strengthen regional cooperations for green job creation, climate action plans, economic recovery programs which align workforce planning with sustainability goals, and embedded green employment targets within industrial policies.

• Strengthen data and monitoring for green job growth – make data publicly available to help policymakers, businesses, and education institutions in shaping the green workforces.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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