(Bloomberg) — Just when the world is clamoring for more coal, U.S. suppliers are facing a shortage of miners. The number of coal miners in the U.S. has been sliding for years, and is down about 8.6% from before the pandemic.
People who have left are reluctant to come back and young people are even more wary about taking a job in an industry that they’ve consistently been told has no future given the global push toward clean energy.
That’s making it difficult for mining companies to boost production at a time when the global energy crisis is making utilities desperate for every lump of coal they can dig up. Even with coal prices surging around the world, the labor shortages are another sign that it’s going to be tough to shore up energy stockpiles.
“They used to walk into our offices,” said Erin Higginson of Custom Staffing Services, which recruits miners in the Illinois Basin. “Now we’re holding job fairs all over just to find a few.”
For the rest of this article: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/u-s-coal-mines-are-running-out-of-miners-just-as-demand-booms-1.1662585