Are Coal Mining Jobs Coming Back?
For those keeping score, the net change in coal mining jobs since Trump took office is +771, soon to fall to +371, according to the American Energy Society. In their (highly recommended) publication “Energy Matters,” they write:
Coal mining jobs by state, 2017 (Note: a net total of 771 new coal jobs were created nationwide in 2017):
Winners: 1. West Virginia (+ 1,345 jobs); 2. Alabama (+ 950 jobs); Virginia (+ 500 jobs).
Losers: 1. Texas (-455 jobs); 2. Ohio (- 414 jobs); Kentucky (- 300 jobs).
(Note: Dana Mining is about to close, which means 400 people will soon lose their jobs in Pennsylvania.)
Why is this significant? Well, for one, it shines light on the bald-faced lies spread by EPA Administrator and Trump henchman Scott Pruitt. From FactCheck.org in an article published in July, 2017: The Environmental Protection Agency head said that the “coal sector” added 7,000 jobs in May and “almost 50,000 jobs” since the fourth quarter of last year. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an increase of just 400 coal mining jobs in May and 1,300 since December.
As former Vice President Al Gore puts it: “Promising to re-create the 19th Century is not a visionary strategy.”
Thank you, Al. but I’m not sure anyone is asking Pruitt, or anyone in the Trump administration, for a “visionary strategy.” All we’re requesting is that they do as little harm to our health and environment as possible until they’re gone, a blessed event that can’t come soon enough.
Craig,
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics ! ” [Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli]
You appear to have added a forth : delusional lies from distorted statistics !
An article in July 2017 could at best only quote figures gathered from the first 5 months of the Trump Presidency. Hardly a definite statistic.
Nor do you acknowledge the Coal industry was in the process of shedding jobs at a dramatic rate. Since the election of President Trump, the Coal industry has received a tremendous boost in confidence,job losses have ceased and employment has risen sharply.
That’s why statistics should be examined objectively, not selectively. If the coal industry was failing so badly and on the verge of disappearing, what on earth are you getting so het up about ? Why all the fuss ?
Because the obvious answer is it’s not happening!
Domestic use of coal has not decreased. Coal usage has increased by a few percent in the last year to 33-4 % of all electrical production. The big increase has been in coal exports.
Labour statistics for an increasingly mechanized industry are not easy to gather by old fashioned job descriptions. The industry today supports far more technicians, researchers, IT contractors, mechanics, skilled machines operators, chemists, geologists, transport and logistic contractors and a myriad of other jobs that didn’t exist in the Coal industry 40 years ago.
The number of part-time (even a few hours every fortnight) employment in 2017 transformed into full time employment boosting wages and creating the equivalent of “new” jobs that don’t appear in statistics.
Coal mining communities are already enjoying the growth of high paid wages into previously poverty stricken communities. Shops, schools, service industries, hospitals, restaurants etc have re-opened along with local light industry, even some heavier manufacturing that was dying or idle has restarted.
Naturally, this new prosperity provides additional budget for local government to provide or improve civic recreational, tourist and other amenities, creating even more economic activity in some of America’s most neglected and poorest communities.
Why you delight in misrepresenting the improvement in these peoples lives, while enjoying an affluent Californian lifestyle, seems incomprehensible. No wonder the nation is so divided.
Coal production slumped from 1 billion tons in 2014 to just 739 million tons in 2016, U.S. (Mine Safety and Health Administration) . Employment dropped from 111,000 in 2014 to just 72,000 in 2016. President Obama predicted coal would be half even that reduced size in 2018.
The biggest hits to Coal (outside government policy) in recent years has been the availability of cheap and abundant gas along with increased automation.
Perhaps it’s easiest to explain the employment effect of Coal mining on a Coal mining community, and statistical anomaly .
The return of a coal mine to full production, may not return all the coal face jobs that once existed as automation may have rendered many positions obsolete. However, the Local tyre depot may re-open as the extra business is sufficient to justify three more employees. The local mechanical service contractor expands to accommodate the new technology and the need to train and up skill operators. The county may need 10 or 40 extra inspectors, fire services, environmental experts etc. and the list goes on…….
None of the folk are “miners”, they don’t show up in the statistics, but they all rely upon the mine for employment.
Meantime, the US balance of trade is improve by Coal exports and the power of Russian influence is counter-balanced in the Baltic and Eastern Europe.
(Interesting listening to Al Gore supporting the Trump administration’s Tariff on Solar Panels) !
…I smell ad hominem, and a Straw Man argument.
Here’s an interesting chart: http://www.mining.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/us-coal-mining-jobs-2017.jpg
Cameron,
What a curious comment ! A little graph, provided without context or analysis, proving what exactly ?
About as relevant as Craig’s photo of cars on a highway producing pollution. (not a lot of Coal fired motoring).
Relevant or not, your comment does reveal the cruel arrogance of the sanctimonious ‘green-left self imagined elite’ toward those whom they disdain. Your protestations against “capitalist greed” are equally matched by your disdain and contempt for the plight of true working class Americans’. Since you over the years you’ve also expressed contempt and disapproval for nearly every other group in society, from farmers to the middle class, leaving you speaking for just a little group of your fellow travelers and malcontents, why do you bother ?.
Ad hominem, you bet! I’ve just spent four months traveling through Coal belt America, meeting and learning from all members of these communities, not just those who have spent their lives in the Coal industry, but local environmentalists (often the same people).
I came away with a lot more knowledge and respect for the issues and challenges faced by this industries and communities. The issues are deep and complex, they deserve better than recycled, superficial, distorted comments and disdain from fellow American who know absolutely nothing of their plight nor appreciate their contribution to the US economy.
Want to help the environment ? Don’t like the divided nature of US politics and Society, then get off your backside, invest some time listening to your fellow Americans.
Feel their hopes and fears, joy and hardships first hand, not vicariously through selective media accounts.
I regret if my reply sounds overly personal, and perhaps you may feel it’s a undeserving, and you may be correct, but one thing I did learn on my American odyssey is how little the American people care about one other, and how very little they know about each other.
Occasionally, President Trump’s observations make sense. His observation on why young American are eager to travel thousands of miles to help those living in poverty in the third world, and yet can’t be bothered to help those in the US also living in poverty and wretchedness, strikes a vein of truth.
Cameron, I urge you, take the time to visit and understand those living in the US “forgotten” mining and rust belt communities. I promise if you visit with an open heart, leaving preconceptions behind, you may experience an epiphany !