We examine the relationship between green innovation and employment from data taken from theSpanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for period 2007–2011. The increasing relevance ofenvironmental issues for the Spanish economy, its unemployment problem and the uniqueness in itsinnovation structure make it a proper and interesting context to investigate green innovation dynam-ics. We find a positive relationship between green innovation and employment, and the relationship isstronger for firms in the so-called ‘dirty’ industries. In addition, we show that the relationship is positivefor firms that introduce green innovation voluntarily, as compared to firms that introduce green inno-vation merely to comply with regulations. A positive and significant relationship is also found betweenemployment and firms that report an increase in the degree of importance paid to green innovation.