GAO Audit Finds $500 Million Spent on 'Green Jobs' That Didn't Exist

Nearly half the people who received government-funded training were unable to find work

A federal audit shows that nearly a half-billion dollars in government funds was spent on training workers for so-called "green jobs." The only problem is that not enough positions in the growing industry exist.

The findings—released in a June report by the Government Accountability Office—showed that only 55 percent of those trained were able to place in a new job, many of which were not technically green jobs. The $501 million in funding came from the 2009 stimulus law. The report also uncovered that the Department of Labor created a framework that led grantees to broadly interpret the program's definition to include any job "that could be linked, directly or indirectly, to a beneficial outcome" which led to the gap between training programs and available green industry jobs.