President Donald Trump’s vow to revive the coal industry may not have come to pass, but miners have at least halted the plunge in employment.
Source: www.cnbc.com
After shedding more than 100,000 jobs over the last three decades, employment in the U.S. coal industry has been steady at about 51,000 to 53,000 positions since President Trump took office. A key driver has been the boost in exports that has offset the continued closure of American coal-fired power plants during that time. However, the bigger driver for coal mining jobs is market forces at home and abroad which continue to deteriorate. Cheap, cleaner-burning natural gas and wind and solar farms continue to generate electric power in the U.S. as well as globally pushing coal out of the energy mix. Although exports grew over the last two years owing to disruptions in coal supplies from Australia, Indonesia and China, the outlook appears tougher for the next two years. With the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasting a 13% dip in exports this year and another 8% in 2019, job losses in the coal mining could resume.
