What’s the most dangerous job?
Now that we’re on the other side of COVID-19 (oh my goodness, yay!!!) we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming. Frontline healthcare workers and “essential workers” have moved back down the list, and occupations such as fisher, logger, and pilot have topped the list of the most dangerous jobs in America.
To calculate its rankings of the most dangerous jobs, the BLS considers the overall number of fatal injuries per job and the relative death rate per injured worker. In other words, the list doesn’t simply reflect which jobs killed the most people but calculates the overall death count in relation to a worker’s likelihood of dying after getting hurt.
Sadly, this year’s statistics show an increase in fatal injuries over last year’s. ISHN reports:
“On-the-job deaths have been rising — hitting the highest annual number since 2016. There were 5,190 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2021, an 8.9 percent increase from 4,764 in 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in December.”
We can all do our part in protecting our society’s most vulnerable workers. Go tell the pilots, roofers, loggers, and other high-risk workers in your life that you appreciate them. Then, commit to a safer workplace by implementing a systematic environmental health and safety program. Start improving your facilities’ working conditions today with our EHS Checklist.
