Thousands of people died on the job in 2021. These were the deadliest industries.

By Emma Ockerman

‘Every worker who died on the job represents another empty seat at a family’s kitchen table,’ AFL-CIO president says

More than 5,000 U.S. workers died on the job in 2021, according to new statistics released by the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation. And the number of fatalities among Black workers was at its highest point in nearly two decades.

In a statement Wednesday after the labor group released its annual “Death on the Job” report, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said that “every American should be alarmed and outraged by the tragic data unearthed in this report.”

“It is unconscionable that in the wealthiest nation in the world, Black and Latino workers are facing the highest on-the-job fatality rates in nearly two decades,” Shuler said. “This report is more than a wake-up call, it is a call to action. No one should have to risk their lives for their livelihoods. There is no corporate cost-benefit analysis that should put human life and worker safety on the wrong side of the ledger.”

The AFL-CIO’s new report on worker death and safety data — the 32nd such report it has released — noted that fewer workers have died in the 50-plus years since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, thanks to “significant progress toward improving working conditions and protecting workers.”

Even so, there’s more to be done, the labor federation said: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalties are too weak and its resources are too few, while unions are under threat.

Just in 2021, 5,190 U.S. workers were killed on the job, with a job fatality rate of 3.6 deaths per 100,000 workers. The fatality rate was even higher for Black workers at 4 deaths per 100,000 people, up from 3.5 in 2020 and at its highest level in “more than a decade,” according to the report. The number of Black workers who died on the job — 653 — was also the highest in at least 19 years, the AFL-CIO said.

Latino workers — who are at the greatest risk for workplace fatalities, perhaps due to their overrepresentation in dangerous industries — also died at a disproportionately high rate in 2021, with 4.5 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2021, according to the report. That’s 25% higher than the national average, the AFL-CIO said.

Meanwhile, the number of Latino workers who died hit 1,130 in 2021, up slightly from 1,072 deaths in 2020. The majority of those who died were immigrants.

“This report isn’t just about data points, it is about people,” Shuler said in her statement. “Every worker who died on the job represents another empty seat at a family’s kitchen table. Every worker accounted for in this report is a person who just went to work one day and never came home.”

“It is our solemn responsibility to these workers to do everything in our power to honor their memories by making America’s workplaces safer — because that’s what unions do,” she added. “It is our history, it is our responsibility and it is our cause to always put workers and their safety first.”

States with the highest fatality rates included Wyoming, with 10.4 deaths per 100,000 workers; North Dakota, with 9 deaths per 100,000 workers; and Montana, with 8 deaths per 100,000 workers.

The deadliest industries for workers continued to be agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting; transportation and warehousing; mining, quarrying, and oil-and-gas extraction; construction; and wholesale trade, the AFL-CIO said.

Notably, workers of color are often overrepresented in those occupations. About 45% of workers in farming, fishing, and forestry occupations are Latino, as are approximately 51% of construction laborers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In contrast, Latino workers make up 18.5% of employed people over the age of 16 in the U.S.

Black people, who make up 12.6% of the labor force, account for 20.3% of workers in transportation and material-moving occupations, according to government data. Transportation incidents were the leading cause of workplace fatalities in 2021, accounting for 1,982 deaths, the AFL-CIO said. What’s more, as job fatality rates have declined in other dangerous industries like construction and agriculture since 1992, the fatality rate for workers in transportation and warehousing has managed to increase by 12%, reaching 14.5 deaths per 100,000 workers, the AFL-CIO said.

“The top industries where workplace fatalities occurred among Black workers in 2021 were transportation and warehousing (207), professional and business services (91) and construction (69),” the AFL-CIO said in its report. “Within the transportation and warehousing industry, there were significant increases in Black worker fatalities from the previous year, including 19% among truck transportation (138 from 116), 183% among couriers and messengers (17 from 6) and 300% among warehousing and storage (12 from 3).”

An estimated 120,000 workers, meanwhile, died of occupational diseases in the U.S. in 2021, and employers reported some 3.2 million work-related injuries or illnesses, the report said. But due to “widespread” underreporting, the AFL-CIO said, the number of work-related injuries and illnesses in the private sector may be closer to 5.4 million to 8.1 million annually.

A Labor Department spokesperson told MarketWatch in a statement that the agency is “determined to make penalties impactful in ways that help prevent others from being injured, sickened, or killed at work,” calling the number of workers who died in 2021 “alarming.”

“We know that too many workers are at increased risk because of their ethnicity or language they speak. This is why we are taking actions to lessen some of these factors, working with advocates and organizations so that all workers feel empowered to raise concerns when they believe their safety is at risk,” the spokesperson said. “Every workplace fatality is a stark reminder of how important our work is at OSHA and of the moral obligation to protect workers in this country.”

Read next:Amazon workers’ serious-injury rates still double those of other warehouse workers, study shows

-Emma Ockerman

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04-29-23 1611ET

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