In its Kentucky Quarterly Coal Report covering April to June, the Energy and Environment Cabinet said that all jobs were from the eastern coalfields with the biggest losses in Letcher (down 42.7%), Breathitt (down 57.5%), Laurel (down 45.5%) and Clay (down 41.2%) counties.

In all the 20 Kentucky counties averaged a 10.33% drop, or a loss of 916 jobs.

That is in addition to the steep declines already felt over 2012.

At the same time, interestingly, western Kentucky had quite a different result – it gained 1.5%, or 65 jobs, during the June quarter.

While four of the 10 counties in the region had job losses, those were offset by big gains in Ohio County (added 67 jobs, up 9.2%) and Hopkins County (added 19 jobs, up 2%) as well as four others.

As of early July, the beginning of the EEC’s third quarter, there were 12,342 miners employed in Kentucky coal operations and facilities, 7951 in eastern Kentucky and 4391 in western Kentucky.

Of those, 7058 were underground workers and 3248 were surface employees.

That is the lowest number statewide since 1927, according to the report from the cabinet.

Specifically, it said, layoffs included 864 coal miners, 487 underground and 377 surface. Coal preparation plants and on-site office staff increased by 14 jobs during the period.

“During the two years since July 2011, total employment at eastern Kentucky coal mines has fallen by 5725 or 41.9%,” the EEC noted in its four-page data report.

“During the past two years, western Kentucky mining employment fell by 105 jobs, or 2.3%.”

Kentucky mines have felt the impact of losses in production and people for largely the same reasons as other coal-rich mining regions, the challenges of competition from natural gas as well as relatively high production costs and stiffening environmental regulations.