1,000 jobs Added in Coal Mining Sector in First Quarter 2017

The new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, has repeatedly presented amazing figures, stating the coal and mining sector had added 50,000 new jobs in the last quarter. Figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) speak a much more moderate language, at least when you look at coal mining only. According to the statistics, this sector added 1,000 jobs in the first quarter 2017.

In the U.S. coal mining sector there are only 51,000 jobs in total. So, adding 50,000 in this sector would have come close to a miraculous doubling of employment. Pruitt might have gotten something mixed up there and/or was somewhat unspecific on the time frame (last quarter) and the exact sector he was referring to (coal jobs/mining jobs), as the Washington Post states.

The closest you can get to Pruitt's figure is when you take the October 2016 figures for all mining (not just coal) as a starting point. The jobs added would then amount to 47,000 new jobs in all of mining, most of which were labelled as support activities.

By the way, 1,400 jobs were added in the last quarter of 2016 under President Obama in the coal mining sector alone.