Construction Deaths Rise Again To Highest Level Since 2011
Construction is still the deadliest occupation in the U.S., according to new federal labor data, and its fatalities are rising while other workplaces have gotten safer.
The U.S. saw approximately 5,283 workplace deaths in 2023, and almost one in five happened on construction sites. A total of 1,075 construction laborers died at work during the year, the most recent full-year data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows.
Fatalities also slightly increased from the 1,069 deaths recorded in 2022, Construction Dive reported.
The figures placed construction as the most lethal of the occupations measured by the BLS’ census for the second year running. Almost 40% of those deaths came as a result of slips, trips and falls.
The census, which measures deaths in private industries, found that workplace deaths overall dropped by 3.7%, working out to approximately one death every 99 minutes compared to one every 96 minutes the year prior.
Construction workers made up just 7.5% of all U.S. employees in 2022 but 19.9% of workplace deaths. The risk for roof workers was the highest, followed by helpers and structural iron and steel workers.
Other industries have improved, the BLS data showed. Around 1,495 workers involved in transportation, which includes retail and warehouse, died on the job in 2023, 7.7% fewer than the previous year.
Officials have rang alarm bells about increasing numbers of construction worker deaths in markets across the U.S. in recent years.
In New York, fatalities quickly rebounded to prepandemic levels again in 2022 due in part to “a decrease in agency enforcement,” according to a report from labor advocacy group the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.
Last year, labor unions and local government officials in Texas also called for improvements in construction worker safety, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Construction workers also face a higher risk of death by suicide, with figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that they are four times more likely to die by suicide than workers in other industries.
Employers should be doing more to ensure workers’ safety, Associated Builders and Contractors Vice President of Workforce Development Safety Health and Environmental Greg Sizemore told Construction Dive.
“Unfortunately, we are not seeing the gains or progress that we would consider favorable for the health and safety of construction workers,” he said. “We must also be relentless in ensuring every employee arrives and leaves jobsites in the same or better condition than ever before.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — In the U.S., the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
