- Unemployment insurance benefits rose 115% from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015 in North Dakota.
- KAREN BLEIER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Falling commodity prices are dragging down workers’ earnings in the mining industry and boosting unemployment payouts in a handful of states.
In the second quarter of the year, personal earnings declined in five states, according to a Labor Department report out on Wednesday. In three of those–North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming–that was largely due to drop-offs for the mining industry, a category that includes oil and gas extraction, coal and support services. It was also the second straight quarterly drop for earnings in those states.
Meanwhile, unemployment insurance benefits rose 115% from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015 in North Dakota, 74% in Oklahoma, 66% in Wyoming, 49% in Texas, and 27% in West Virginia, all states with significant energy sectors.
The oil story has been widely reported, with sharply lower prices helping consumers with cheaper gasoline but also squeezing energy companies and their employees. Coal hasn’t caught as much attention, though the industry has been battered by competition from natural gas, regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of a stronger dollar on exports.
Net earnings fell just under 0.3% in North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming from the first to the second quarter. That’s the equivalent of about $56 million in North Dakota, $69 million in West Virginia and $67 in Wyoming.
Of course, that’s just a drop in the national bucket. For example, net earnings grew $10.6 billion in California, the nation’s biggest state.
And the picture isn’t entirely bleak. In the late 1980s, an oil price plunge hit Texas’s economy hard. While oil and gas has once again been hit, other sectors have been picking up the slack, boosting overall earnings in the Lone Star State by 0.2%.
“Mining earnings also declined 3.6% in the second quarter in Texas, a state which accounts for nearly half of the nation’s mining earnings,” the Labor Department said. “However, in contrast to other major mining states, total earnings in Texas continued to grow.”
Across the U.S. earnings climbed 0.6% in the second quarter of the year, after increasing 0.4% in the first quarter, the Labor Department said. Washington state, Nevada, New York and Virginia experienced the strongest growth.
Personal income, which also includes investment income and transfers from programs like Social Security and unemployment, rose 0.9% across the U.S. in the second quarter after climbing 0.8% in the first. That’s in line with the postrecession average of just under 1%.
Related reading:
Oil-Price Plunge Could Push Down Home Prices in Three States
The U.S. Oil Story in Seven Charts
Texas Towns Led the Country in Economic Growth in 2014
from Real Time Economics http://ift.tt/1JD5XpE
No comments:
Post a Comment