Our own HotJobs points out several top recession-proof fields right now. The areas of education, energy, health care, and the environment itself are all good bets. And greenies will be glad to know that these overlap with E: The Environmental Magazine‘s list of booming eco-friendly job sectors.

Other hot fields include environmental law, information technology, government planning and land use, and waste management and recycling. Plus, jobs such as accounting, human resources, and project management continue to be needed within environmental organizations of all types.

So where do you start your green job search? We’ve collected some of the best websites for job listings and other resources for a new earth-focused career.

• Sustainable Business Green Dream Jobs: Large list of positions at all levels with environmentally conscious employers. From solar water heating system installer to web producer, from human resources assistant to fish campaign organizer, you’re bound to find something intriguing here.
• Idealist.org Job Search: Openings at nonprofits; search on “environmental & ecology” or “energy conservation & green living” for unique listings such as organic farm manager in Southwest Florida and video editor for the Clinton Foundation.
• Green Jobs: This site is all about the burgeoning area of renewable energy. If you’re interested in solar, wind, or biofuels, whether installing, engineering, or selling, check this one out.
• EnvironmentalCareer.com: Lists hundreds of jobs, especially in environmental sciences and energy fields. Also has opportunities to transfer existing skills into green businesses — for example, a senior billing coordinator position for environmental consultants.
• Business for Social Responsibility Jobs Board: Worldwide positions at companies that value people, communities, and the environment. Includes big names such as the Walt Disney Company.
• Grist Job Board: Environmental groups from around the country post their jobs here. Also, Grist’s Kevin Doyle has a series of articles about the green job market.
• TreeHugger Job Board: Dozens of green business and organizations list their openings here. Subscribe to the RSS feed for the latest updates.
• Jobs With the National Park Service: Love the great outdoors? You could work anywhere from Hawaii’s volcanoes to Yellowstone’s geysers. The park service has 16,000 permanent employees and another 10,000 seasonal employees each year.
• World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms: If you’re interested in the fast-growing field of organic food (no pun intended), you could volunteer on a farm to get experience. This site connects volunteers with farms around the planet.

Another green tip: Many companies encourage applying online these days, so you can email your resume. But if you have to print it, look for high-quality paper made with recycled fibers. No point killing trees when you’re applying for an earth-friendly job!

Solar and wind-power companies, energy-efficient light bulb makers, environmental engineering firms and others expanded their work force by 9.1 percent from 1998 to 2007, the latest year available, according to Pew.

The average job growth in all industries was 3.7 percent during the same period.

The entire energy sector has experienced growth in recent years as well, according to the Bureau of Labor. Bureau data shows coal mining jobs jumped 16 percent from 2003 to 2009. Oil and gas extraction jobs jumped 28 percent.

The Pew study does not include employment data from the past 18 months, a volatile period for the energy industry.Since the data was collected, the government has said it would pump billions into renewable energy and effiency programs. The banking meltdown made it nearly impossible to raise cash and oil prices have collapsed.

Alternative energy companies have been hit hard by the recession, with a string of bankruptcies in the ethanol industry and layoffs in the wind-power industry.Lori Grange, Pew’s interim deputy director, said that while green industries will certainly benefit from the influx of billions in stimulus dollars, the report shows that the clean energy sector has proven itself sustainable.

States like California, Texas, Florida, and New York continue to employ the most people in the industry. However, states experiencing the largest growth rates were Idaho, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, according to the report.

Michigan, which has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, saw a 10.7 percent increase in clean energy jobs from 1998 to 2007.That is not to say that clean energy jobs have kept pace with overall job losses.Pew counted 22,674 clean energy jobs in Michigan in 2007. To put that into perspective, Michigan lost 38,400 jobs in April alone.

Many of the new manufacturing jobs do not pay as well as traditional union jobs, either, yet workers who have made the shift say the industries are moving in different directions.One cast off from the auto industry is Bob Mamo, 50, who was director of business development for a Dearborn, Mich., auto parts supplier until he was laid off in November. He was in the industry for 20 years.

Last month, he landed a job as vice president of manufacturing for Free Flow Power, a hydropower company based in Gloucester, Mass.The auto industry “just looked like it was going in the wrong direction,” he said. “Green energy is definitely on the upswing. Green energy was what I was really after.”

Liesl Clark, deputy director for Michigan’s Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, said the state is doing what it can to help manufacturers shift operations to supply parts for wind turbines, such as gear boxes and drive trains.

For its study, Pew used private jobs data that included information about employers, and Pew researchers spent nearly a year determining which ones could be considered part of the clean energy economy.

“Our numbers are probably conservative,” said Kil Huh, who directed the study. “If we couldn’t identify as part of green energy, it wasn’t part of our count.”

The Pew jobs data was dominated by environmental engineering firms and other pollution cleanup specialists that have been around for years. But the report showed that the fastest growing areas include companies that make hybrid diesel buses, traffic monitoring software, liquid biofuels, and jobs related to solar and wind energy.

“The explosive growth is really in clean energy,” Huh said.