Number of coal miners?

January 6, 2006 12:35 PM

How many coal miners are there in the US?

I can't find a current and definitive number anywhere. The Bureau of Labor Statistics website gives the number of miners (spread across several suboccupations), but I'm looking specifically for those American workers whose job it is to extract coal from the earth.

posted by viewofdelft to work & money (5 comments total)

The census is your friend.
At the moment, I could only do a breakdown of all people employed by the industry as a whole, as you discussed, but it is possible to break it down by specific occupation.
Start here.

Also found this link, from the bureau of labor statistics, which you might be talking about above. It seems to indicate that there are only 6,000 extraction workers, unless I'm misreading something.
posted by dpx.mfx at 12:57 PM on January 6, 2006

Around 70-75,000 is what you will get from the Energy Information Administration, Mine Safety (PDF), or the "total number" in coal mining from the this BLS estimate, but the BLS report breaks it down fairly finely into management, extraction, production, etc.
posted by milkrate at 12:59 PM on January 6, 2006

The print version of the Occupational Outlook Handbook has a reference to the Society for Mining Metallurgy and Exploration. They are likely to have a more granular number than the one from the OOH.

SME
Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration
8307 Shaffer Parkway
Littleton, Colorado 80127-4102
Toll Free: 1-800-763-3132
[e-mail]
posted by ArcAm at 1:00 PM on January 6, 2006

Ahh, check that. the 6,000 is just "helpers." It looks like ~69,000 for all extraction occupations.
posted by dpx.mfx at 1:05 PM on January 6, 2006

Figure I'll throw in some additional information, I learned while writing a term paper on the UMWA. Due to mine mechanization the number of miners has fallen dramatically from what it used to be, this is true going back fifty years. An interesting factoid I discovered was that in 1950 there were 416,000 miners. By 1959, that number had fallen to 180,000. Its amazing that from 180,000 its down to around 70,000.
posted by Atreides at 5:00 PM on January 6, 2006