A preliminary total of 4,679 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2014, an increase of two percent over the revised count of 4,585 fatal work injuries in 2013, according to results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) conducted by the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Three industries/occupations – mining (17 percent), law enforcement (17 percent) and agriculture (14 percent) – experienced double-digit increases, while manufacturing deaths were up by nine percent and construction fatalities increased by six percent.
In other bad news, rates of fatal occupational injuries for workers 55 and older are the highest they’ve ever been.
“Far too many people are still killed on the job – 13 workers every day taken from their families tragically and unnecessarily,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. “These numbers underscore the urgent need for employers to provide a safe workplace for their employees as the law requires.”
The preliminary rate of fatal work injury for U.S. workers in 2014 was 3.3 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers. Other key preliminary findings of the 2014 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries include:
The number of fatal work injuries in private goods-producing industries in 2014 was 9 percent higher than the revised 2013 count but slightly lower in private service-providing industries. Fatal injuries were higher in mining (up 17 percent), agriculture (up 14 percent), manufacturing (up 9 percent) and construction (up six percent).
Fatal work injuries for government workers were lower (down 12 percent).
Falls, slips and trips increased 10 percent to 793 in 2014 from 724 in 2013. This was driven largely by an increase in falls to a lower level to 647 in 2014 from 595 in 2013.
Fatal work injuries involving workers 55 years of age and over rose nine percent to 1,621 in 2014, up from 1,490 in 2013. The preliminary 2014 count for workers 55 and over is the highest total ever reported by CFOI.
After a sharp decline in 2013, fatal work injuries among self-employed workers increased 10 percent in 2014 from 950 in 2013 to 1,047 in 2014.
Women incurred 13 percent more fatal work injuries in 2014 than in 2013. Even with this increase, women accounted for only eight percent of all fatal occupational injuries in 2014.
Fatal work injuries among Hispanic or Latino workers were lower in 2014, while fatal injuries among non-Hispanic white, black or African-American and Asian workers were all higher.
In 2014, 797 workers suffering fatal occupational injuries were identified as contracted workers, six percent higher than the 749 fatally-injured contracted workers reported in 2013. Workers who were contracted at the time of their fatal injuries accounted for 17 percent of all fatal work injury cases in 2014.
The number of fatal work injuries among police officers and police supervisors was higher in 2014, rising from 88 in 2013 to 103 in 2014, an increase of 17 percent.
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