Federal fatality data revealed that work-related injuries resulted in the death of a worker every 96 minutes in the U.S. in 2022 compared to every 101 minutes the previous year.
A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that there were 5,486 fatal work injuries in 2022, which was a 5.7% increase over the 5,190 recorded in 2021.
Deaths from violence, overdoses, suicides on the rise
Fatalities due to violence and other injuries by persons or animals jumped 11.6% to 849 in 2022, compared to 2021’s 761. Of those fatalities, homicides accounted for 61.7%, with 524 deaths, an 8.9% increase.
Unintentional overdoses at work resulted in 525 fatalities in 2022, an increase of 13.1% over 2021’s 464. This continued a trend of annual increases in this category since 2012.
Suicides also surged in 2022 with an increase of 13.1% to 267 fatalities. This followed consecutive decreases in 2020 and 2021.
Transportation industry had the most fatalities
The occupational group with the most fatalities was the transportation and material moving industry with 1,620 fatal work injuries in 2022. The next highest was construction and extraction with 1,056 fatalities, an 11% increase from 2021.
Transportation incidents remained the most frequent type of fatal event with 37.7% of all occupational fatalities. These types of incidents resulted in 2,066 fatal injuries in 2022, which is a 4.2% increase over 1,982 the previous year.
Despite increases in transportation incidents in both 2021 and 2022, those incidents were still down 2.6% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 when there were 2,122 fatalities.
Fatality rates for Black, Hispanic workers increase
The fatal injury rate for Black and Hispanic workers increased in 2022 from 4 to 4.2 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers and 4.5 to 4.6 per 100,00 FTE workers, respectively. The rates for these two groups were both higher than the all-worker rate of 3.7 per 100,000 FTE workers.
Transportation incidents accounted for the highest cause of fatalities among both Black and Hispanic workers with 278 for Black workers and 439 for Hispanic workers.
OSHA, NSC respond
Assistant Secretary for OSHA Doug Parker responded to the BLS report finding the information “a sobering reminder of the important work we must do, especially for Black and Hispanic workers who saw the largest increase in workplace fatalities.”
“No worker should ever be disadvantaged because of their skin color or ethnicity; and that is never truer than when it comes to their lives and health,” Parker said.
Parker added that the increase in “work-related overdoses and suicides continue to be causes of great concern, and they are another call to action for” OSHA, employers and other stakeholders to address these issues.
He added that “mental health must be part of overall worker safety and health.”
The National Safety Council (NSC) also found the BLS data for 2022 “staggering.” Specifically, the organization pointed to the increase in unintentional drug overdoses at work, saying that “more must be done by employers to prevent these fatalities.”
“Overdoses can happen anywhere, and the BLS report shows these medical emergencies can be fatal and are occurring in the workplace,” the NSC said. “This further makes overdose and naloxone awareness, access to naloxone in workplace first aid kids and other locations, and adoption of programs to ensure workplaces and their employees are equipped to save a life critical components to workplace safety.”
The NSC found that the “data provided by BLS make it clear more education and resources, such as policies and training, are needed to keep people safe on the job” and the organization encouraged “lawmakers to support and pass the WORK to Save Lives Act which removes barriers to get opioid overdose reversal medications in workplaces and serves as a crucial step toward preventing workplace fatalities from opioid overdoses.”