The American mining jobs boom
America's mining job market is booming, with a 13.4 percent gain in the month of January.
This file photo shows Wayne Hashell of South Dakota working at at the Pogo Gold Mine outside Delta Junction, Alaska. The American mining market is booming, with a 13.4 percent increase in January.
John Hagen/AP/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner/File
Another noteworthy news from the latest employment report is that the boom in mining (including oil extraction) employment continued. Whereas overall employment rose 1.5% and overall private sector employment rose 2% in the year to January, mining employment gained as much as 13.4%. While it even after that gain was only 0.6% of total employment, its increase was 4.6% of the total increase in employment.
And that's only counting the direct employment in that sector. Add to that the jobs created by the demand from all those newly hired workers. The inflow of all those workers into the state who has benefited the most from the mining boom, North Dakota, has also created a construction boom in that state.
Though not the only factor, the direct and indirect effects of this mining boom is therefore an important factor behind the recent uptick in U.S. growth.