Two of the most dangerous US occupations, mining and manufacturing, are hiring yet can’t fill the job openings they do have.
While many job seekers have been frustrated with the country’s slowly improving employment market, there are some sectors in hiring mode. But two such industries – mining and manufacturing – have seen a steep decline in available jobs over the past few years and it also happens that those sectors are among the most dangerous for workers.
The United States has lost approximately 191,000 jobs in the mining industry since September 2014 including approximately 7,000 that were lost in April, according to data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The coal mining industry has been particularly hard hit and lost approximately 10,900 jobs since April of last year.
“Mining employment continued to decline in April (2016),” the Bureau of Labor Statistics report revealed. “Since reaching a peak in September 2014, employment in mining has decreased by 191,000, with more than three-quarters of the loss in support activities for mining.”
In fact, the BLS says seasonally adjusted month-by-month historical employment numbers showed mining employment in the United States peaked in September 2014, when there were more than 850,000 jobs in the industry.
Manufacturing output may be rising, but the jobs just aren’t coming back. The cruel reality is that a good share of the manufacturing jobs once done by human hands are now completed by robots. That truth is borne out in hard data. U.S. manufacturing output, now at an all-time high, relies less and less on increased manufacturing employment. While some experts say that manufacturing employment has actually climbed a touch since bottoming out at 11.5 million employees in 2009, the latest figures fall far short of those posted in the glory days.
“I am not so sure we will be able to maintain this current pace over the course of the year,” says economist Sam Bullard of Wells Fargo.
But it does seem some in both sectors are feeling cause for optimism. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Manufacturers, more than 90% of its 14,000 members have a “positive outlook” for U.S. manufacturing, and that represents the highest level of optimism in the last 20 years.
CareerBuilder.com has compiled a list of the most dangerous career sectors and their average salaries.
Because jobs in both of these sectors can be dangerous and carry a high risk that a fatal accident may occur, it is advisable that any workers entering these industries invest in a life insurance policy to ensure that their loved ones are financially secure in the event of an accident.
Photo – “Mining Northern Ontario — drillers drifting for gold mining operations / Exploitation minière au nord de l’Ontario – Foreurs en train de creuser en vue de l’exploration minière”
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