21 Mining Emplo yment in the Unit ed Stat es 1990 20 18 Sect or 1990 199 5 2000 2005 20 15 20 18 Metal 54 005 48 734 3 7 650 30 39 5 4 1 45 9 39 86 7 Nonmetal 33818 29 44 1 25 918 23 0 39 21 235 19 773 C oal 146505 10 3 0 7 6 7 6 0 25 818 91 68 4 13 555 2 7 Sand Gr a v elSt one 121 214 115 9 2 4 12 7 6 14 12 6 2 45 9 9 76 7 10 380 1 C ontr act or s 48 773 6 4 4 7 2 81 340 83 2 66 112 0 35 10 284 7 T otal 404 315 36 1 6 4 7 34854 7 344836 342 909 321816 MSHA Includes w ork er s in mines pr oc es sing plants independent shops and y ar ds ofc e w ork er s The mining workforce includes a broad range of professions from geologists and engineers to accountants and equipment operators In addition thousands of men and women who may never see a mine make their living building the equipment used to extract coal and minerals from the ground Computerization mechanization and technologi cal innovations have had a tremendous efect on American industry and mining in recent years Although mining is still a demanding and often chal lenging profession todays mining personnel are highly skilled and well trained in the use of mod ern state of the art instruments and equipment This includes a level of sophistication that demands unprecedented skill training and education It is no surprise that as mining becomes increasingly high tech computer programmers and technicians are playing a greater role in mining s future These advances have signifcantly altered the overall size of the mining s workforce In recent years the trend has been toward fewer more highly skilled mining personnel to operate sophis ticated equipment that performs tasks once done by many laborers MINING S W ORKF OR CE Annual Mining W ag es v s All Industries 20 18 Stat e Mining All Industries 1 Alask a 112717 54424 2 Ne v ada 98289 489 23 3 ND ak ota 94 728 53157 4 Ha w aii 93500 48377 5 W y oming 92765 47422 6 Montana 88774 42315 7 C olor ado 88396 59305 8 W est V a 87156 45780 9 Illinois 85938 60424 10 Alabama 85441 46510 All US 78920 57198 Ex cludes oil and g as e xtr action A v er ag e US Bur eau of Labor Statistics