Always one step ahead of the rest when it comes to trends, a new report suggests that green businesses in California have grown 45 percent from 1995 to 2008.

The Golden State is turning green, it appears, with a new reports suggesting that eco-friendly green business have grown 45 percent since 1995; and green employment jumped 36 percent, in stark contrast to total jobs, which only grew 13 percent. Apparently green is good for more than just the obvious reasons.

Eco-friendly jobs were also resistant to the slow economy from 2007 through 2008 as well, actually growing 5 percent while overall employment rates fell 1 percent. The new report also indicates that service-related positions made up 45 percent of the green jobs in California, with the largest portion of green jobs being found in environmental consulting, followed by manufacturing jobs (21 percent), energy efficiency jobs, and energy generation jobs. Within the realm of energy generation jobs, solar representation demonstrated the strongest growth.

With green awareness rampantly expanding through the country, it’s likely that these numbers will only grow in the years to come, and hopefully other states will take the example set by California and step up their green game as well.

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