IOBP

Institute of Business Publications

Government reports big jump in the number of U.S. worker deaths

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When it comes to the safety of your staffers, now is not the time to let down your guard!

That’s your takeaway from recently released statistics showing that U.S. workplaces are becoming more dangerous.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just issued its annual Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries for 2021, and the news isn’t good. According to the data, 5,190 U.S. workers died on the job in 2021, an 8.9% increase from the 4,764 staffers who suffered fatal injuries in 2020.

The bottom line: Someone in the U.S. dies from a work-related injury once every 101 minutes.

Due to the increase in the number of deaths, the fatal workplace injury rate went up to 3.6 deaths for every 100,000 workers in 2021, from 3.4 fatalities in 2020.

Although the jump in the number of deaths affected every racial and ethnic group, it was most pronounced among African American workers (653 Black employees died in 2021 compared with 541 fatalities in 2020) and Latino employees (1,130 Hispanic deaths in 2021 vs. 1,072 fatalities in 2020).

(From the Dec. 26, 2022, issue of Safety Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)