[Old School]

According to the US department of labor only 79,000 people are employeed in the coal mining industry as of 2006. So the number you gave 90,000, seems to be a bit exaggerated.


I was in a hurry calculating my numbers, and I placed the wrong number in the post, 101,322 is 57% of 177,874.

Now you spent a whole post pretty much saying what I have been saying, coal mining jobs have been decreasing for a long time, and IMO the recent trend in the decrease in coal mining jobs is due to mtr, which is a cheaper way of mining than underground mining.

Youre right that mining jobs have increased in KY since 2000, but if you go back 2 years to 1998 coal mining jobs have decreased all across the country, but I guess you only look at the stats that make your point seem right. In the last decade, coal mining jobs are on the fall, and they have been since the peak in coal in 1981. Experts say that coal mining jobs are going to continue to fall.

My theory on MTR being a huge part in the drop in coal mining jobs is not far off, according to statistics, 80% of all mining operations have less than 20 workers employed by the coal company. 45% of mining operations have 3 people employed through the company. All of this is according to the department of labor. Since strip mining jobs (MTR) requires very few workers, and most operations hire less than 20 workers, I think my theory of smaller mining operations being to blame for the fall in jobs is very valid.

Also the average age of Miners in ky is 45, so it seems that this increase in jobs isn't really going to a wide age demographic, probably because the jobs are just being given to former miners. What this region really needs is good sustainable jobs for all age demographics, and coal mining isn't providing that.

Coach you've had some dandy posts in the past, but this one takes the cake . I haven't laughed this much in a long time, the only way I could ever believe that a MTR job only employed 20 is if they only ran one shift per day and it's hard for me to believe that a company would spend 20 to 25 million dollars on a mining operation and only operate it 1 shift per day. You keep insisting that MTR is a cheaper way to produce coal but if you only operated 1 shift per day the cost per ton would be quadrupled that of underground mines. Then you try to tell me that 45% of the mines only employee 3 this is great stuff, lol you have to tell me where you found this info. Do you really think that 3 employees can take a mountain down (as anti-mining groups want everyone to believe) 800 ft. to 1000 ft. The average size MTR job will have at least 20 pieces of equipment if not a lot more and operates 2 shifts per day and usually 6 days a week.

You continue to say that MTR jobs have fewer workers than underground mines, I know you won't believe me but it's really closer to 50-50, our surface mines employee 47, while our deepmines employee 51 and 45 both surface and underground mines vary depending on which method they use.

Now if you still believe that MTR is to blame for the decreased number of miners then maybe you could explain the drop from 704,000 in 1923 to 141,000 in 1963 which was well before MTR method.

Coal companies have been begging for people for the last 5 years and the 15% increase of mining jobs could be 25% if more people could pass a drug test which is another thread by itself.

Again thanks for your last post I needed a good laugh.