Natural Resources and Mining

About the Natural Resources and Mining supersector

The natural resources and mining supersector is part of the goods-producing industries supersector group.

The natural resources and mining supersector consists of these sectors:

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment in natural resources and mining. These data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, job openings and labor turnover, gross job gains and losses, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment and Openings, Hires, and Separations

Data series Back
data
May
2008
Jun.
2008
Jul.
2008
Aug.
2008

Employment (in thousands)

 

Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)

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760 768 (P) 778 (P) 790

Employment, production workers (seasonally adjusted)

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568 573 (P) 581 (P) 595

Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)

 

Job openings

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16 18 (P) 18  

Hires

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31 41 (P) 27  

Separations

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18 24 (P) 20  

Footnotes
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)

Dynamic Changes in Employment

Data series Back
data
1st quarter
2007
2nd quarter
2007
3rd quarter
2007
4th quarter
2007

Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands)

 

Gross job gains

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279 286 257 289

Gross job losses

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287 269 270 259

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates in natural resources and mining, see the Employment and projected employment by major industry sector table.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings and Hours

This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours for production or nonsupervisory employees are shown.

Earnings and Hours of Production Workers

Data series Back
data
May
2008
Jun.
2008
Jul.
2008
Aug.
2008

Average hourly earnings

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$21.71 $22.01 (P) $22.54 (P) $23.05

Average weekly hours

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44.6 45.0 (P) 44.9 (P) 45.2

Footnotes
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses

This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in natural resources and mining. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.

Data series 2004 2005 2006 2007

Fatalities

 

Number of fatalities

825 878 858 (P) 758

Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers

 

Total recordable cases

5.3 5.1 4.9  

Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer

3.1 2.9 2.7  

Cases involving days away from work

2.0 1.8 1.7  

Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction

1.1 1.0 1.0  

Footnotes
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments and the number of establishments experiencing job gains or job losses in natural resources and mining.

Establishments

Data series Back
data
1st quarter
2007
2nd quarter
2007
3rd quarter
2007
4th quarter
2007

Number of establishments

 

Private industry

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(P) 124,005 (P) 124,528 (P) 125,432 (P) 125,462

Local government

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(P) 73 (P) 72 (P) 72 (P) 71

State government

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(P) 138 (P) 138 (P) 138 (P) 138

Federal government

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(P) 82 (P) 82 (P) 82 (P) 82

Establishments with changes in employment (in thousands)

 

With job gains (seasonally adjusted)

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35 34 33 35

With job losses (seasonally adjusted)

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34 35 34 33

Footnotes
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Other BLS Resources

The Editor's Desk

See industry studies in the subject matter index of The Editor's Desk (Current Edition).

Career Guide to Industries

To learn about careers from an industry perspective, see the Career Guide to Industries.

 

Data extracted on: September 16, 2008