While the official US
payroll numbers released on Friday showing an increase of 292,000 jobs in
December came in way above expectations, the mining industry suffered its 12th
consecutive month of employment decline.
According to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics report, the 8,000 positions eliminated in
December means mining and logging lost 131,000 jobs for the year.
Mining drives the employment trend in this sector and accounts
for essentially all losses over the month (-8,000) and over the year
(-129,000). These losses were concentrated in support activities for mining
says the BLS.
It was the first year of annual job losses since 2009 at the
height of the global financial crisis and the biggest decline in employment
since 1986. 2015 also saw the third most jobs lost in one year in the mining
and logging industry according to BLS data going back to 1939.
In December 782,000 were employed in the sector – that's 475,000 fewer people
working than at the height in 1981.
Average wages are better than the $25.24 average across
industries – $31.27 an hour for all employees and $26.51 an hour on average for
nonsupervisory employees in December according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, but here the trend is also down.
Wages in the industry fell 1.4% for December compared to flat
growth in hourly earnings in December for the total labour market.
Source: mining.com