“We can’t find talent.” “There are no jobs.” Who’s right?

Hey,

Welcome to Green Jobs Rising!

Everyone says there is a talent shortage.

Employers say they cannot find skilled people but recruiters complain about a lack of qualified candidates.

Some roles stay open for months.

At the same time, thousands of qualified young professionals are applying for jobs and hearing nothing back.

So what is really going on?

Across industries, there is a growing disconnect between employer perception and job seeker reality.

Companies say they are struggling to hire. Candidates say they are struggling to even get an interview.

This is becoming one of the biggest contradictions in today’s job market.

In sectors linked to the green economy, as climate and sustainability investments grow, many organisations are expanding into areas like renewable energy, climate finance, electric mobility, sustainable agriculture, carbon markets, and ESG reporting.

But many employers are searching for candidates who already have experience in these emerging sectors, even when the sectors themselves are still young.

The result? A high unemployment rate among youth in formal sectors.

A candidate may have transferable skills from engineering, operations, finance, research, communications, or project management, but still be rejected because they do not perfectly match a highly specific job description.

In many cases, employers are no longer hiring for potential. They are hiring for precision.

And precision is expensive.

Organisations increasingly want candidates who can ‘hit the ground running’ immediately.

They want someone with technical skills, industry knowledge, software experience, strong communication abilities, and sometimes even international exposure, all in one person.

The ideal candidate becomes a wishlist rather than a realistic hiring strategy.

Meanwhile, young professionals are stuck in a difficult cycle:

• jobs require experience,

• experience requires opportunity,

• and opportunity often requires experience.

This is especially difficult in emerging sectors where formal pathways into the industry are still limited.

Part of the problem is that the hiring market has changed faster than many hiring systems have adapted.

Today, companies receive huge numbers of applications for a single role. Recruiters are overwhelmed. Automated screening tools filter candidates before a human even sees them.

As a result, employers may interpret the lack of ‘perfect’ applicants as a talent shortage, while candidates experience the same situation as an opportunity shortage.

Both sides feel frustrated, but for different reasons.

The green economy may create millions of jobs globally over the coming years, but access to those jobs will remain uneven if employers continue searching for narrow profiles while overlooking adaptable talent.

The question is no longer whether jobs exist.

But, who can realistically access them?

Because right now, many employers say they cannot find talent, while many talented people are still waiting to be seen. Watch the video below. We would love to hear from both employers and jobseekers.