Coal Jobs in Eastern Kentucky
This document assembles available public information on Eastern Kentucky coal jobs since 1988. Our goal is to determine which Eastern Kentucky counties have been impacted most severely by job losses due to the decline of the coal industry.
Since the original intentions of the RRED group and bringing tourism to Eastern Kentucky was expressed as a way to offset the loss of coal jobs we at RRGU thought it important to determine two things: which EKY counties had been hit the hardest by job losses, and how severely the four counties which border the Red River Gorge (Lee, Menifee, Powell, and Wolfe) and would be most affected by a large resort development have been impacted by the loss of coal jobs.
The answer was dramatic. Our four local Gorge counties have, collectively, seen a loss of ONLY 124 jobs since 1988.
Meanwhile, Places like Pike County have lost 5,061 jobs, Harlan County has lost 2,966, and Letcher County has lost 2015.
When you look at data like this, or for example the fact that the unemployment rate in Pike County before the COVID-19 pandemic was just 3.7 percent, you begin to wonder if these motives about replacing jobs and helping Eastern Kentucky are real.
The quick data:
The full data, since 1988.
The direct source:
https://eec.ky.gov/Energy/News-Publications/Pages/Coal-Facts.aspx
