53,000

Appalachian coal miner, 1946. He's carrying a lunch pail.

That's the number of people employed in the coal industry and miners today.

There were 694,000 in 1919.  1919 was the peak year for coal mine employment in the United States.

In 1929 it was already down, to 602,000.

454,000 in 1939.  But of course that was in the Great Depression.

170,000 in 1959.

Put that way, the 53,000, in 2019, which is up slightly over the past year, is a pretty resilient figure. After all, in just the 20 years from 1939 to 1959 the industry suffered the loss of 280,000 jobs.

Still, that trajectory is remarkable.  And it's related to what we've noted previously.

In very human terms.