Human capital letter 'A' on list of concerns for Central Appalachian production

摘要

If Alpha Natural Resources' estimation is accurate, there are a pretty alarming number of positions to be filled in the workforce of Eastern coal producers. Alpha President Kevin Crutchfield said in a recent earnings call that openings could currently be well more than 2,000 for the industry overall. "There are a lot of vacancies across the industry that we didn't have 3-4 months ago. If you assume our vacancies are proportional to everyone else, I think you will come up with 2,500 to 3,000," Crutchfield said. "It's a big number. That excludes announced expansions, so you are probably looking at 5,000 people total."