Death on the Job: 2017 Fatality Numbers Released

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released their National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries for 2017. The total fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2017 was 5,147 which is down slightly from 5,190 in 2016. This shows that we are headed in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go for the preferred number of 0.

This table was also released and is very comprehensive in the information that it contains (2003-2017). Instead of interpreting the table for you, we thought it best to just let you view the information and decide what is most relevant for your specific workplace. Let’s make 2019 safer than any previous year.

Highlights from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“Fatal falls were at their highest level in the 26-year history of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) accounting for 887 (17 percent) worker deaths. Transportation incidents remained the most frequent fatal event in 2017 with 2,077 (40 percent) occupational fatalities. Violence and other injuries by persons or animals decreased 7 percent in 2017 with homicides and suicides decreasing by 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively.”

“The transportation and material moving occupational group and the construction and extraction occupational group accounted for 47 percent of worker deaths in 2017. Within the occupational subgroup driver/sales workers and truck drivers, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers had the largest number of fatal occupational injuries with 840. This represented the highest value for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers since the occupational series began in 2003. Fishers and related fishing workers and logging workers had the highest published rates of fatal injury in 2017.”

• Fifteen percent of the fatally-injured workers in 2017 were age 65 or over – a series high. In 1992, the first year CFOI published national data, that figure was 8 percent. These workers also had a higher fatality rate than other age groups in 2017.
• Fatalities incurred by non-Hispanic Black or African American workers and non-Hispanic Asian workers each decreased 10 percent from 2016 to 2017.
• Fatal occupational injuries in the private manufacturing industry and wholesale trade industry were the lowest since this series began in 2003.
• Workplace fatalities in the private mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry increased 26 percent to 112 in 2017 from a series low of 89 in 2016. Over 70 percent of these fatalities were incurred by workers in the oil and gas extraction industries.

Learn more about OSHA construction standards.