According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 42,800 individuals were employed in the coal industry in January 2024. The BLS estimates that by December of 2024, that figure had dropped to 42,600.
The number of U.S. coal mining industry jobs have been declining for many years. In January of 1986, 169,700 people worked in coal mining. In January of 2014, the coal industry employed around 76,000. By December of that year, the number was 69,700.
Key Takeaways
- The coal mining industry in the U.S. has been on the decline for years.
- The entire coal mining industry is relatively small in the U.S. and concentrated in just a few states.
- The BLS estimates that 42,600 people worked in the coal mining industry in December of 2024.
- Coal jobs have been lost due to a variety of factors including a push for greener energy and more efficient technology used in coal mining.
- By the end of 2024, U.S. coal jobs were 60% of what they were a decade earlier.
Energy Policy and Jobs
President Obama’s Green Power Plan is often cited as one reason for the decline of coal, but the regulations and incentives would not have gone into effect until 2022.
After he took office, President Trump ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review and eliminate the measures.
Competition from natural gas—in part due to fracking—also damaged the coal industry, as has a broad reduction in the amount of energy required to generate economic growth. Furthermore, automation has reduced some need for human labor. This means employees can fare badly even as the companies they work for thrive.
With the Biden administration, renewable energy such as solar power returned to the policy priority list. According to an annual solar jobs census, 279,447 people in the U.S. worked in the solar power industry in 2023.
Note
West Virginia is home to the greatest number of coal miners in the country—14,014 as of 2023—which is roughly one-third of all U.S. coal miners.
Coal Jobs
The aforementioned 42,600 coal mining jobs made up only around 0.02% of the more than 168 million-strong civilian labor force in the U.S in December 2024.
Many individual companies, such as Amazon and Walmart, employ more people than the entire group of coal mining employees.
The relatively small number of employees can’t be tied completely to the number of job openings shrinking. In 2021 and 2022, coal industry employers could not find enough workers to fill their positions.
It may be that people simply do not find coal mining as attractive an employment proposition as they did in the past.
Mining is dirty, dangerous, requires physical effort over long days, and pays relatively low wages. It may be that even when coal industry companies offer higher wages, people simply may not want to return to the coal mines.
How Many Coal Mining Jobs Are There in the U.S.?
As of December 2024, there were approximately 42,600 coal mining jobs in the U.S.
Will U.S. Coal Mining Jobs Rebound in 2025?
It doesn’t look like it. In fact, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) reports that the U.S. will close down half of all coal generation capacity by 2026.
How Many Coal Jobs Are There in the World?
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global coal industry in totality employs 8.4 million people worldwide, mostly concentrated in countries like China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa. Of that figure, 6.3 million work in mining, processing, and transportation. That total industry figure is expected to decline to 6.1 million in 2030.
The Bottom Line
As of December 2024, an estimated 42,600 people worked in the U.S. coal mining industry. That’s a far cry from the 169,700 employees in 1986. But the nation’s focus on climate plans and cleaner energy has made a lasting impact on the industry that most likely will continue to reduce the number of jobs.