Adaptation Jobs Explainer: Understanding This Critical and Growing Workforce

The document defines adaptation and resilience professionals as those integrating future climate conditions into their daily work, noting that such roles span for-profit, academic, government, and nonprofit sectors. It highlights a lack of standardized Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) codes for these roles, which complicates accurate counting, though it notes the U.S. adaptation and resilience industry was valued at $2.4 billion in 2019. The text categorizes the workforce into five roles—practitioner, service or tool provider, funder, policy maker, and advocate—and calls for updated Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) systems to better track this growing workforce.

• The U.S. adaptation and resilience industry was valued at $2.4 billion in 2019, encompassing roles in climate risk assessment, adaptation planning, engineering, construction, and disaster preparedness.
• Adaptation and resilience professionals are defined as individuals who incorporate information regarding future climate conditions—such as sea level rise, temperature trends, and storm events—into their daily decision-making and actions.
• The adaptation workforce is distributed across various sectors; members of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP) report working for for-profit companies (26%), academia (24%), U.S. or Tribal governments (24%), and nonprofits (22%).
• There is currently no systematic method to count adaptation and resilience jobs because the Bureau of Labor Statistics lacks Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes specifically designed for these roles.
• Adaptation jobs are categorized into five general roles: practitioner, service or tool provider, funder, policy maker, and advocate.

APA

McGinn, A. (2021). Adaptation Jobs Explainer: Understanding This Critical and Growing Workforce. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/adaptation-jobs-explainer-understanding-this-critical-and-growing-workforce

Chicago

McGinn, Anna. Adaptation Jobs Explainer: Understanding This Critical and Growing Workforce. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2021. https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/adaptation-jobs-explainer-understanding-this-critical-and-growing-workforce.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=McGinn |first1=Anna |title=Adaptation Jobs Explainer: Understanding This Critical and Growing Workforce |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=23 September 2021 |url=https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/adaptation-jobs-explainer-understanding-this-critical-and-growing-workforce |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mcginn2021adaptation, author = {McGinn, Anna}, title = {{Adaptation Jobs Explainer: Understanding This Critical and Growing Workforce}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2021}, month = sep, url = {https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/adaptation-jobs-explainer-understanding-this-critical-and-growing-workforce}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }