Source: www.usatoday.com
Mining features among sectors where blue collar jobs made a comeback this year in the U.S., along with manufacturing and construction. While increased activity in coal mining primarily drove additional mining industry jobs, higher oil prices and a recovery in housing generated more jobs in the oil & gas and construction sectors. In addition to this job increase, pay also increased for the blue collar jobs in recent months, at a rate (3%) faster than that of management and professional positions (2.5%). Coal mining jobs rose 2.8% in 2017 and 2.1% this year after long-running layoffs while employment in oil and gas drilling has risen by 5.1% percent through the first 11 months of 2018, following several years of losses. Manufacturing is set to turn in its best year since 1997, with 249,000 total payroll gains through November. Construction jobs grew 4% to 240,000 jobs so far this year, the highest since 2015.
