http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=aGbfkSKScFxU&refer=germanyMarch 22 (Bloomberg) -- Employment in Germany's renewable energy sector may double by 2020, helping to lower the country's near record-high jobless rate, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.
About 157,000 people worked in the renewable energy industry in 2004 compared with 30,000 people in the nuclear energy industry, according to Gabriel. The number employed in renewables will rise to 170,000 this year and to 300,000 by 2020, he said.
``Environment policies can give momentum for innovation, investments, growth and employment,'' Gabriel said today at a press conference in Berlin. ``Especially in structurally weaker regions, expansion of the renewable energy industry can help to create new jobs and secure old ones.''
Gabriel's comments come as Germany's unemployment rate, adjusted for seasonal swings, leveled at 11.3 percent last month, the same as in January, when it was the third-highest in the euro region after Greece and France. The unadjusted rate remained above 5 million for the second month running, a level reached in February 2004 for the first time since World War II and which it has since remained close to.
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