November 29, 2004

Mining Jobs Growing

Staff
Charleston

Looking for a new career? How about coal? Bill Raney the president of the West Virginia Coal Association says after years of poor production and massive lay-offs, jobs are opening up in the industry. Raney predicts within the next decade they'll have to hire on about 8-thousand new miners to replace the current workers who will be retiring. 17,000 miners were employed in West Virginia in 2003 another 25,000 worked for specialized contractors on mine job sites.

The 80's and 90's were not good years for the coal industry and jobs were hard to come by. That's why so many workers who parents and grandparents worked in the industry, found other occupations, ones that were more secure. As a result, Raney says the coal industry is missing a generation. They have the older miners, the average age is about 52, and a small crop of new miners but few in their 30's and 40's.

Projections for the next 12 months call for coal production to keep climbing and more jobs to be added to existing and new mine sites.

Raney says they're trying to recruit workers who want a good paying job, the average is about $50,000 a year plus benefits. He says those new workers will be able to step in and take the place of miners who are ready to retire.

Jobs in the mines aren't the only ones opening up. Raney says with clean coal technology and other high tech jobs that go along with mining, there's no limit to how many workers they might need in just a few years time.

Raney says the hard part is convincing people that mining does have a future will good paying, stable jobs.