Dive Transient:
- Building continues to be one of many deadliest industries within the U.S., with 986 building staff dying on the job final yr.
- That represented a 2.2% lower from 2020, in line with Bureau of Labor Statistics information launched Dec. 16, however nonetheless places building as one of many high sectors for whole fatalities. To place building’s numbers in context, transportation and warehousing deaths totaled 976 in 2021.
- Building staff died at a price of 9.4 per 100,000 full-time equal staff in 2021, the BLS reported, down from 10.1 in 2020. That price has hovered in that threshold for at the least a decade. The brand new per capita figures are the bottom since 2011, however nonetheless don’t break the development.
Dive Perception:
Building’s per capita price of employee deaths shouldn’t be the best amongst industries. The agricultural, fishing, forestry and looking business averaged 19.5 deaths per 100,000 full-time staff and the transportation and warehousing price equaled 14.5.
However, a number of the building business’s jobs have been among the many most harmful: For example, roofers’ price was 59 employee deaths per 100,000 in 2021.
2021’s most typical building deadly occasions or exposures
| Trigger | Variety of building employee deaths (2021) |
|---|---|
| Falls, slips, and journeys | 390 |
| Transportation incidents | 212 |
| Publicity to dangerous substances | 204 |
| Contact with object or tools | 127 |
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Falls, together with struck-bys, caught-in/betweens and electrocutions — dubbed the “Deadly 4” — proceed to kill extra building staff than different causes mixed.
2021’s slight lower in building deaths is not any purpose to relaxation, in line with Brian Turmail, Related Basic Contractors of America’s vice chairman of public affairs and strategic initiatives.
“There’s a temptation to see a decline within the fatality numbers as one thing to have a good time. It isn’t,” Turmail mentioned in an announcement shared with Building Dive. “There may be nothing acceptable about almost 1,000 folks dropping their lives in our business.”
Extra work forward
The employee loss of life price throughout all industries was 3.6 per 100,000, the best since 2016.
Jessica Martinez, co-executive director for the Nationwide Council for Occupational Security and Well being, launched an announcement calling the loss of life price for all industries “unacceptably excessive,” and advocating for reform.
“We want an pressing wake-up name to our employers and our authorities,” Martinez mentioned within the assertion. “Hearken to staff. Implement our security legal guidelines. Take away recognized hazards, and let’s work collectively to ensure each employee comes dwelling safely on the finish of each shift.”
BLS fatality numbers lag by a few yr, which is why 2021 information is the newest obtainable. The group shares information each by occupation and by business — which may imply two distinct statistics of comparable dimension are reported. Building Dive makes use of the business information, which represents all staff in building. By occupation, BLS reported building and extraction occupations collectively.