Demand heats up for coal miners

PITTSBURGH — While much of the country struggles with a difficult job market, coal companies are in a heated competition for workers. They're raiding each other's employees, renting billboards and even paying for banner-towing planes at beach resorts with generous offers of pay and benefits.

America is looking for coal miners. Demand for coal is increasing, and some of the biggest energy companies say they desperately need help. Despite the dirty, gritty nature of the work, some people are heading back to the mines, drawn by better pay. But recruitment efforts are still falling short of the companies' hopes.

The labor shortage isn't just a problem today; the real crunch, according to coal producers and the U.S. Labor Department, will occur in five to seven years, when the industry faces a massive wave of retirements.

There is no next generation of miners to replace them, according to Tom Hoffman, vice president of investor and public relations at Consol Energy Inc., the nation's largest underground coal producer.

"For the last 15 years or so, we've been able to reach back into a pool of experienced miners that had been laid off or who had lost jobs through consolidation," Hoffman said. "Those guys are now largely gone, either retired or they got out of the business. We're facing a very big demographic bubble."

The number of coal miners nationwide dropped from 159,777 in 1990 to 99,358 by the end of 2003, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. And officials with the National Mining Association testified before Congress this summer that more than half of all coal miners are older than 50 and that replacements for them would have to be found before the end of the decade.

Dozens of mining communities saw much of the next generation of miners leave years ago, when there were few prospects for jobs in areas where coal is mined. Now that coal is in demand because of higher prices for oil and natural gas, Consol and other major producers are already smarting from the labor shortage.

Consol, based in Pittsburgh, told investors production was down in some Kentucky mines because operators could not find enough help. And Massey Energy Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. coal company, said last month its third-quarter profits would suffer due to a labor shortage.

"It is a major issue for us now and the most significant restriction we have to growth," said Katharine Kenny, spokeswoman for the company, which is based in Richmond, Va. "Not having enough people will prevent us from hitting production goals."