Coal Mining Jobs Drop 15 Percent In Eastern Kentucky In First Half Of 2019

PIKEVILLE, KENTUCKY - AUGUST 24: Silverliner, a tank truck manufacturer, is the first business to locate to the Kentucky Enterprise Industrial Park, located on a reclaimed strip mine on August 24, 2019 in Pikeville, Kentucky. The industrial park was developed by the city of Pikeville with the hope of luring new jobs to the area. Eastern Kentucky, once littered with coal mines, is seeing that lifeblood rapidly slip away. The region has lost more than 15 percent of its mining jobs in the past year and less than two thirds of the jobs remain from a decade ago. Recently, more than 300 miners in nearby Harlan County lost their jobs when Blackjewel LLC declared bankruptcy. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)