If your workday generally appears to include nothing but boring conferences, occasional spills, and computer glitches, think yourself as lucky if you don’t work in one of the 15 professions with the highest death rates in the US.
Each year thousands of U.S. workers die from injuries on the job. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Census of Fatal Activity Injuries shows a preliminary total of 4,383 fatal work injuries in 2012, down slightly from 4,693 in 2011. The rate of work injuries among the U.S. workers in 2012 fell to 3.2 per 100,000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ breaks down the numbers to inform us what job has the highest mortality rate. The highest spot on the list goes to work staff, who lost their lives at a rate of 127.8 per 100,000 regular workers. In total, 62 loggers were killed on the job last year, that, some refer to as murders by profession. Some occupations that appear dangerous, like firefighting and tractor operation, are comparatively safer; each of these jobs, for instance, is less dangerous than being an automobile mechanic. Some of the safest jobs of all (with less than 10 deaths among all regular workers) include PC, mathematical professions, and legal occupations.
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There were more than 14,000 work fatalities the year the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed by President Nixon. As a result, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was established to create safety standards in the workplace. Since that time, work standards have improved, and work fatality has declined to 5,200 in 2016. Today, the overwhelming majority of working Americans are comparatively safe in their work surroundings. However, the homicide rate by occupation is also increasing day by day. Out of all the industries in the U.S (like public and private sectors), there have been 3.6% of deaths for every 100,000 normal regular workers. However, despite how strict the protection standards put in place, there are continuously accidents and fatal errors. The majority of jobs on this list need the frequent use of serious instrumentation, close proximity to risky substances, or operating in probably dangerous environments. Well if you look at the 15 Professions with the Highest Suicide Rates in America, the professions on that list do coincide with some on our list.
In order to compile this list of 15 professions with the highest death rates in the US, we have considered the worker’s death and injury rate. We have collected the data from various trusted websites, news outlets, and governmental websites like OSHA, Washington Post, Fortune, USA Today, and many more. The list of OSHA deadliest jobs was taken as the reference to collect all the data. While ranking the professions with the highest death rates in the U.S., we also looked at the list and data of deadliest jobs in America 2017, deadliest jobs in America 2016, and deadliest jobs in America 2015 from various government and non-government sources. The profession which has the highest mortality rate ranked 1st and the profession with the lowest mortality rate is at the last place on our list.
Based on these parameters, here is the list of 15 professions with the highest death rates in the US. We are starting off with the last two professions share the 14th place.
14. Police and sheriff’s patrol officers
Death rate per 100,000 people: 14.6
We start our list of 15 professions with the highest death rates in the US with Police and sheriff’s patrol officers. There were more than 14 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers in 2017. The most common accident in this profession is getting injured by another person. Their average annual wage is $59,680.
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