More than a quarter of UK employers face skills shortages when hiring for sustainability roles, according to hiring platform Indeed.

Last week, energy secretary Ed Miliband said the government would help build a “clean power army” to hit targets for green energy generation by 2030, yet 49% of respondents to Indeed’s poll said they lacked the necessary qualifications or experience.

Two in five workers (41%) feel employers are not open enough to transferable skills, according to Indeed, even though 27% said they would take a pay cut to secure a sustainability role.

Sustainability roles

Young people need more guidance over ‘green jobs’ 

One in eight workers need reskilling for net-zero 

More than a quarter of respondents (27%) said that a lack of available positions was the main barrier to entering the green jobs market. Location is also a concern, with almost a quarter saying there are not enough roles near them. This is an improvement on last year, when 42% felt limited by location.

Workers aged between 25 and 34 are the generation most invested in the green sector, with a third willing to take a pay cut and 42% open to retraining. Almost half (49%) of this group said they would consider a sustainability role if they started their career today.

By contrast, less than a third (29%) of 18 to 24-year-olds said they would take a pay cut in 2025, down from 42% in 2024.

Despite the perception that employers are not open to reskilling, 42% said they believed better training could bridge the skills gap in the green sector, up from 31% in 2024.

More than half (53%) of employers believe more should be done to encourage young people into green careers, although this is down from last year (63%).

In 2025, a higher proportion of jobseekers were unsuccessful in trying to enter a sustainability role (28%) than were successful (22%). Last year this was the other way around (32% successful compared to 27% unsuccessful).

Overall, both employers and workers believe that sustainability is good for business and for attracting talent. Nearly half of workers (44%) say they now place more importance on working in roles that positively impact the environment, although this figure has declined since last year (55%).

That said, almost a quarter (23%) are attracted to the sustainability sector due to its “positive image”, suggesting their motivations might not be entirely about impact.

“Bridging the gap between motivated jobseekers and employers’ perceived barriers to hiring will require investment in skills and greater awareness of transferable experience,” said Matt Burney, senior strategic advisor at Indeed.

“With the right support, the green workforce can be a powerful force in driving the UK’s net-zero ambitions forward.”

 

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