In 2021, 5,190 workers lost their lives on the job as a result of traumatic injuries, an increase from 2020, according to fatality data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The rate of fatal job injuries in 2021 was 3.6 per 100,000 workers, an increase from 2020 and a return to the fatality rate in 2016. Each day in this country, an average of 15 workers die because of job injuries—women and men who go to work, never to return home to their families and loved ones. This does not include workers who die from occupational diseases, estimated to be 120,000 each year. This number does not include those who died from being exposed to COVID-19 at work. Chronic occupational diseases receive less attention and place little accountability on employers because most are not detected until years after workers have been exposed to toxic chemicals and other agents, and because occupational illnesses often are misdiagnosed and poorly tracked. There is no national comprehensive surveillance system for occupational illnesses. In total, about 343 workers die each day due to job injuries and illnesses.
In 2021, agriculture, forestry, and fishing and hunting continues to be the most dangerous industry (19.5 deaths per 100,000 workers), followed by transportation and warehousing (14.5 per 100,000 workers)—largely from the transportation industry, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (14.2 per 100,000 workers), construction (9.4 per 100,000 workers) and wholesale trade (5.1 per 100,000 workers).
Since 1992, the first year this report was issued, the job fatality rate in most significantly dangerous industries (manufacturing, construction, agriculture and mining) has decreased, except transportation and warehousing, which has increased 12%, from 13.0 per 100,000 workers in 1992.
Transportation incidents, in particular roadway crashes, continue to be the leading cause of workplace deaths, responsible for 1,982 or 38% of all fatalities in 2021, followed by deaths from falls, slips and trips (850, or 16%) and exposure to harmful substances or environments (798, or 15%), including 464 unintentional overdoses. The increase in unintentional overdoses occurring in the workplace mirrors the unintentional overdose crisis seen outside of workplaces across the nation. In 2021, 106,699 individuals in the overall population died from an overdose due to illicit or prescription opioids, a 16% increase from the previous year.
The job fatality rate for all self-employed workers—a group that lacks OSHA coverage—continues to remain high at 11.1 per 100,000 workers, more than three times the rate among wage and salary workers (3.1 per 100,000). In 2021, 906 contract workers died on the job—17% of all worker deaths. BLS had begun reporting details on fatalities that involve workers employed as contractors in 2012 in response to concerns about safety and health issues among these workers. Fatality data in 2019 and forward no longer report details of contractor deaths due to a 2020 BLS policy on disclosure methodology and reduction in publishable data—pulling back on transparency of details among contract worker deaths.
States with the highest fatality rates include Wyoming (10.4 per 100,000 workers), North Dakota (9.0 per 100,000 workers), Montana (8.0 per 100,000 workers), Louisiana (7.7 per 100,000 workers), Alaska (6.2 per 100,000 workers) and New Mexico (6.2 per 100,000 workers). In 2021, the job fatality rate increased in more than half the states (26 states) since 2020.
9U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2021.
10Takala, J., P. Hämäläinen, N. Nenonen, et al. “Comparative Analysis of the Burden of Injury and Illness at Work in Selected Countries and Regions,” Central European Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene 23:1–2, 6–31, (2017). Available at icohweb.org/site/images/news/pdf/CEJOEM%20Comparative%20analysis%20published%2023_1-2_Article_01.pdf
11National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Drug Overdose Death Rates. Feb. 9, 2023. Available at NIDA.NIH.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#:~:text=More%20than%20106%2C000%20persons%20in,drugs%20from%201999%20to%202021.
