An hour and a half . That ’s how long went between deaths from workplace - related injuries in the US in 2022 , according to theBureau of Labor Statistics . They memorialize 5,486 the great unwashed being killed by their job over the year – the equivalent of one every 96 minutes .
And that ’s just a speck in the data point puddle equate to non - fatal injuries in the work – more than 2.8 million of which were record in 2022 .
But of course , all those demise and accidental injury were n’t evenly spread throughout the workforce . A firefighter , for case , should n’t expect the same injury rate as an accountant . So which job are the most dangerous ? Here are some of the bad offenders .
Working with chainsaws and heavy machinery is risky business.Image credit: adriaticfoto/Shutterstock.com
Logging workers and tree trimmers
There are a few different lists of the “ most dangerous jobs in America ” , and few of them are in full agreement with each other . One unwashed thread , however , is that working with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is really , reallydangerous .
That ’s not entirely surprising . We ’re peach about job that involve grueling machinery andchainsawsas standard , in an industriousness that frequently labour workers to their limit in terms of time and forcible exertion . lumberman often knead in set-apart environments , in all weathers , and swear on on the line of work grooming , and so it ’s no curiosity that most wound are make by “ touch with equipment ” and settle – both of object onto the workers , and of the workers themselves .
To add vilification to ( real ) injury , the average salary for logger is just $ 47,900 per year – just four - fifth of the national average . For that , they can gestate a human death rate more than 22 times that of the internal average and a non - calamitous wound rate about 15 per centum higher than the average . And sure , that latter statistic does n’t sound too unfit , until you think about what it really mean : that if you get injure as a logger , it’sreallylikely to drink down you .
Truck drivers' fatality rate is nearly eight times that of the national average.Image credit: Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock.com
Truck drivers
With a fatality pace almost eight times that of the interior average , rescue and hand truck drivers are another mathematical group whose risk of exposure seems outsized for their salary – an average of $ 48,240 , perForbes .
Unsurprisingly , by far the most dying on the job come from “ transportation incident ” , with literally 70 percentage of fatalities arising from vehicular collision . The same figure across all job is about 37 percent , according to the Bureau , making delivery and truck drivers close to doubly as likely as any other job to die out in a car crash .
Meanwhile , the non - fatal accidental injury rate is around 30 percentage higher than the interior norm – though a few matter stand out as being in particular common . Truck driver are almost three times as likely as other line to suffer from musculoskeletal disorder and job with their backs and trunks .
Agricultural workers come into contact with lots of dangerous machinery.Image credit: vlalukinv/Shutterstock.com
There are a few reasons for all these injuries , but one seems particularly elusive for professional drivers : their position . Spending too long sitting is bonk to bebad for your wellness , and motortruck driving is relate with a whole host of session - related ailment such as heart disease and diabetes .
Then there arethe stressesof being forced to stay awake too long , being aside from abode for protracted period of time , irregular work schedules , and just the sheer loneliness of it all – things that both compound health take and act as roadblock to getting regular healthcare . Even if you could see a doctor , there ’s about a one - in - three probability you have no insurance . Is it any wonder the industry has long been lament a want of drivers to fill positions ?
“ We ’re tired . Our bodies are starting to go . Our bladders have been put to the test . And no exercise , ” trucker Stephen Graves told theNew York Timesin 2022 . “ We terminate up with all types of ticker and other wellness ailments . You ca n’t truly fathom what it ’s done to you . ”
Flying a plane is, understandably, pretty perilous.Image credit: Carlos E. Santa Maria/Shutterstock.com
Roofers
Cracking the top five , if not the top three , in all the lists we found was the job of roofer – the multitude who , not surprisingly give the job title , repair , maintain , and construct roofing for edifice .
Many of the occupational hazards of this job are standardized to those in the logging industry : people are working at swell heights , alfresco and exposed to the component , and learning on the job . With a fatality pace 16 multiplication the home average , the main orca on this line is pretty much what you ’d expect it to be : a full 86 percent of work deaths were because of “ falls to a lower level ” – that is , going from the top of a building to the bottom , at speed .
Roofers do have a twosome of pieces of unspoiled news program , though : their non - fatal injury rate is actually slightlylowerthan the interior average , and they do earn a higher wage than our previous two high - danger jobs . So , it ’s really a pretty sweet gig , feign you do n’t literally die .
Agricultural workers
The term “ agricultural prole ” can encompass a wide-cut chain of agriculture - pertain occupations , and basically all of them are riskier than the average job . What the Bureau tag “ multifaceted agrarian workers ” has a human death rate about 5.5 times the home norm , with most death come as a resultant role of either “ contact with object and equipment ” or incidents with vehicles . Both of which , if you ’ve ever seen , say , a combine harvester up close , make total sense .
jab a piddling deeper into the data , and we get a clear picture of what ’s particularly unsafe on the farm . Agricultural equipment operators – the people actuallydrivingthe combine reaper and suchlike – have a fatal injury rate some 13 times higher than the norm .
A piddling lower on the risk - of - death ladder are the first - air supervisors of farming and fishing actor , whose fatality risk is a mere seven clock time the national average . agrarian inspectors , meanwhile , are bringing that have in mind down , with so few on the job deaths that an mean figure could n’t be collected .
One subcategory that might surprise you , though , is the animal workers – the multitude whose job it is to tend farm animal on farms and ranches . While data is patchier in this diligence than others – it ’s pretty highly stockpile with self - hire the great unwashed or very modest businesses who are n’t required to fill in the Bureau ’s one-year surveys – the picture we do have is one that ’s unexpectedly dangerous : with a fatality charge per unit 15 times the typical American ’s , it ’s actually the third - most deadly problem in the country .
Luckily , those taking up this work have an average salary of a whole $ 32,000 per year to make up for it . Which must soften the C .
Aircraft pilots and flight engineers
If there were a functional theme in the list so far , it would be this : gentle neckband . None of the baneful jobs we ’ve talk about up until now require , say , a college stage – most are either taught on the job or via apprenticeship – and equally , none have been what you might call eminent - earning professions .
All of which cook the next one on the list kind of stand out . Aircraft pilots and flight engineers require years of training for their profession – and while college and university degree are n’t strictly necessary , they ’re for sure not frowned upon .
Of naturally , there ’s a intellect for all that prep : the job involves hurtling through the atmosphere at C of naut mi per hour in a tin can that , for all we be intimate , may only be bide in the sky through sheer forcefulness of will . And when you put it like that , the fatality pace , at 13 times the national average , does n’t seem so strange , does it ?
Whether it ’s the pilot film drive the affair or the locomotive engineer supervise the various mechanically skillful system and statuses , the main risk for worker in this group is – unsurprisingly – what the Bureau label “ vehicular and transportation operation ” . In fact , all but one death fall into this category .
The non - fatal chance event rate , meanwhile , is twice the national norm . The risk of exposure is particularly great in private planer and whirlybird , which are n’t bound by the same condom regulations as commercial aircraft – flying as a rider isquite a lot safer , you ’ll be felicitous to know .
Honorable mentions
This is far from an exhaustive listing , and we ’re trusted there are more deadly jobs out there . Firefighters spring to bear in mind , as do the intriguingly make “ explosive proletarian ” and “ chargeman ” .
Unfortunately , jobs like that are pretty rare , all thing considered , and sometimes there was n’t enough data to reliably estimate the danger of various occupations . Fatal combat injury , for example , can only be calculated for jobs arrest by at least 20,000 citizenry of which at least four died . This rules out , say , dredge operators – an undoubtedlydangerous occupation , but one whichfewer than 1,000people in reality hold .
Basically , while we ca n’t say that these are definitely the most deathly problem out there , wedoknow they rank pretty high .
The good news ? loosely speak , workplace accident rates are slew downwards – albeit very slowly . Sadly , the human death pace is n’t really showing the same pattern .
perchance it ’s time to retrain as a funeral conductor .
