Question

There's low unemployment in the U.S. economy. Is the coal industry likely in the declining phase? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Unemployment is determined by the number of jobless people in a country .In US we see low unemployment now because of measures it implements in its economy .The reasons why unemployment is record low in the last five decades are 1) strong monetary policy that helps the country's jobless people even in recession .If you observe the recession between 2007-2009 in America you find lower interest rates intended to encourage employment 2)the labour market is maintained so efficiently in US that the supply of employment is necessitated by the demand .3)millions of people wanted to be in labour force as employees in order to get rid of strained effects of great depression 4) hiring rates have been higher owing to globalisation , liberalisation, privatisation reforms in the US 5) many countries started investing in US as the US dollar had become a global currency .

Coal industry in the US :- If we observe the trends in coal industry in US we find the the number of labourers working in the coal industry has been decreasing ,of course we can't say the coal industry has lost its importance but it is presided by several other energy sources such as wind power ,solar power ,hydro power etc however the significance of coal didn't entirely fade away the reasons are it still remains as one of the major energy providers with 15% of total energy in US ,having high resources that yet to be used US coal resources can last upto 2300 Ad making it future energy provider .The reasons why the coal industry is in declining phase are 1)the employment rate in coal industry has been severely dropped that currently around 50000 coal miners are working in it 2) emergence of other energy resources affected greatly 3) risks associated with the mining hampered the opening of new coal fields 4) environmental concerns that fetched several policies hindered the growth of coal industry 5) the US is shifting its focus slowly towards renewable resources such as hydropower,solar power and wind power 6) installation of plants , transportation are some of the challenges in the industry but notwithstanding all these the coal industry will not definitely be closed anytime soon but we can say it's in declining phase.