As more and more retail workers lose their jobs, there is a new class of unemployed and underemployed workers emerging in America that's much larger and geographically far-reaching than the coal industry that Trump has vowed to revive.
What does this class look like? Nearly half are women, about 17% are Hispanic or Latino, 12% are African-American, and 6% are Asian, according to BLS data. Most are between the ages of 25 to 54, with a median age of 38. On average, retail salespersons are paid about $10.87 per hour, or $22,600 annually, and cashiers are paid about $9.69 per hour, the data show.
The coal industry, by comparison, is 80% male and 77% white with a median age of 43 and a median hourly wage of $26.88.
But coal miners and retail workers do have something in common: most don't have a set of skills that's easily transferable to another industry, which makes career transitions very challenging, according to Mark Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia Business School.
"The coal miners are out of luck," Cohen told Business Insider recently. "Retail workers are in the same boat."
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