2007 Occupations with Highest Fatality Rate and 2007 Positions with Most Fatalities

[Rara Avis]

Jobs with the highest fatality rates
The following 10 occupations had the highest fatality rates in 2007:
1. Fishing and related fishing workers Fatality rate*: 111.8

2. Logging workers Fatality rate: 86.4

3. Aircraft pilots and flight engineers Fatality rate: 66.7

4. Structural iron and steel workers Fatality rate: 45.5

5. Farmers and ranchers Fatality rate: 38.4

6. Roofers Fatality rate: 29.4

7. Electrical power-line installers and repairers Fatality rate: 29.1

8. Driver/sales workers and truck drivers Fatality rate: 26.2

9. Refuse and recyclable material collectors Fatality rate: 22.8

10. Police and sheriff's patrol officers Fatality rate: 21.4



Jobs With the Most Fatalities
The following 10 positions saw the most deaths in 2007:
1. Motor vehicle operators

Number of victims: 1,020

Most common manner of death: highway accidents, 66 percent

2. Construction trades workers

Number of victims: 877

Most common manner of death: falls, 40 percent

3. Management occupations

Number of victims: 511

Most common manner of death: highway accidents, 14 percent

4. Material moving workers

Number of victims: 255

Most common manner of death: struck by object, 15 percent

5. Installation, maintenance and repair occupations (other than vehicle and mobile equipment)

Number of victims: 214

Most common manner of death: falls, 28 percent

6. Law enforcement workers

Number of victims: 165

Most common manner of death: highway accidents, 39 percent; homicides, 37 percent

7. Grounds maintenance workers

Number of victims: 156

Most common manner of death: falls, 28 percent

8. Sales supervisors

Number of victims: 148

Most common manner of death: homicides, 63 percent

9. Agricultural workers

Number of victims: 123

Most common manner of death: highway accidents, 15 percent

10. Supervisors, construction and extraction workers

Number of victims: 118

Most common manner of death: falls, 29 percent

 

[groundcover]

Looks like I better not take up fishing! Very interesting, thanks for the info.

 

[shvl73]

Very sobering stats.
I average 1000 miles a week and see way too many opportunities for danger. Some days it just seems like other drivers are out to get me!

 

[Killer_B]

Some days it just seems like other drivers are out to get me!

We are ;-)

 

[Northstar9126]

I heard that working at a convenience store was one of the most dangerous jobs. Doesn't even make the top ten.

 

[Matt_Jr]

When my dad was in highschool he went to a gas station to get a job. Told the owner he heard he was hiring. The owner looked puzzled and asked how my dad knew he was hiring. My dad replied "Read in the paper your last attendent was shot and killed friday." The owner said "Boy, are you stupid or crazy... and when can you start?" Later my dad found out the guy who killed the attendent did it with a shotgun to the back of the head while the attendent's head was in the toilet. Amazes me how tough dad can be sometimes.

 

[KML]

It seems they missed one

I'll bet the service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan would rather be fishing...

 

[shvl73]

We are ;-)

AHA!!!

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Do they have stats on the most boring job? I would have to say taking inventory on small parts would be one of those. We used to have to count parts once or twice a year in a business I helped run for electronic paper tape readers and the hardware....

 

[Cidertom]

Against my better judgement I am going to wade into this one.
soapbox
Last year (2007) 118 firefighters died in the line of duty. So it would appear that they are at the bottom of the list equal to "Supervisors, construction and extraction workers". And don't even make the list by fatality rates. I find this slightly flawed. Of that 118, 68 were volunteers. So when you look at the fatality rate you should compare on the job times. The typical tradesman is on the actual job 6-7 hours per day compared to my average of 1 hr per day on emergencies. So if you apply statistics to correct the actual exposure times we tend to rank right up there with loggers and aircraft professionals. The flaw comes from the fact that all firefighters are counted to determine the population. If we were to correct that to account for the part-time nature of the various flavors of volunteers our numbers drop a great deal which would increase our fatality rate by the same ratio.

There have been a few studies that show this relationship. I have had this discussion recently as a couple of volunteers needed re-education as to the very real possibility that they might not come home from a fire if they don't pay attention to the training we offer.

This does not include the data from the actuarial types that say we tend to die 5 years eariler than the general population.

/soapbox