Workplace Death, Injury Rates Still Too High: Report

Workplace hazards still kill approximately 140,000 workers each year in the United States—including 5,070 from traumatic injuries in 2024 and an estimated 135,000 from occupational diseases each year, according to the AFL-CIO.

These statistics are why the union produces a yearly report on workers' health. "Job injury and illness numbers continue to be severe undercounts of the real problem. But these are all preventable" according to the AFL-CIO, which just released its annual report on worker injuries, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect”.

This report focuses on the most recent data available from several sources: government job fatality, injury and illness data from 2024, government enforcement data from FY 2025 and peer-reviewed research, reports, union experience and other evidence. 

While the report includes statistics from these agencies, it does offer an opinion as to the reasons behind the hazards that workers currently face, pointing to the current administration. "National progress over the decades has undoubtedly made workplaces safer and saved lives. But that progress is under attack—now more than ever," the union said.  

Key findings from the report, which uses numbers from 2024, are excerpted below.

• The overall job fatality rate decreased to 3.3 per 100,000 workers.
• Workers of color die on the job at a higher rate: Black and Latino worker job fatality rates are disproportionate compared with all other workers.
• An estimated 530 workers died from heat on the job, but both fatal and nonfatal data are an undercount of the real problem, the report notes.
• Workplace homicides continue to be a significant problem, increasing by 3% since 2023; workplace suicides decreased 6.4% from 2023.
• Unintentional overdoses at work decreased 21% from 2023 to 2024, due to increased attention paid to and efforts to combat the opioid crisis. 
• Employers reported nearly 3.1 million work-related injuries and illnesses, a decrease from the previous year. 
• The rate of serious workplace violence injuries has decreased to 2.6 per 10,000 workers.
• Musculoskeletal disorders from repetitive motion injuries continue to be a major problem, accounting for approximately 32% of all serious work-related injuries and illnesses in private industry.
• Underreporting of all workplace injuries and illnesses is widespread—the true toll of work-related injuries and illnesses is estimated to be 5.0 million to 7.5 million each year in private industry.
• Chemical exposures continue to plague working people, leading to debilitating, life-threatening diseases that are preventable. 

The cost of job injuries and illnesses is enormous, estimated at $177 billion to $354 billion a year—an undercount of the real impact on society, families and communities.

States with the highest fatality rates in 2024 were:

• Wyoming (13.9 per 100,000 workers)
• Mississippi (8.0 per 100,000 workers)
• Alaska (7.1 per 100,000 workers)
• North Dakota (6.8 per 100,000 workers)
• Arkansas (6.2 per 100,000 workers)

Industries with the highest fatality rates in 2024 were: 

• Agriculture, forestry, and fishing and hunting (20.9 per 100,000 workers)
• Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (13.8 per 100,000 workers)
• Transportation and warehousing (12.2 per 100,000 workers)
• Construction (9.2 per 100,000 workers)
• Wholesale trade (4.6 per 100,000 workers) 

The job fatality rate increased in the leisure and hospitality industry from 2.3 to 2.4 per 100,000 workers and in the government sector from 1.8 to 2.0 per 100,000 workers.

Black and Latino workers are more likely to die on the job. 

In 2024: 

• 624 Black workers died on the job, with a job fatality rate of 3.4 per 100,000 workers, above the national average. 
• Latino workers’ job fatality rate decreased to 4.3 per 100,000 workers—but Latino workers continue to face the greatest risk of dying on the job compared with all workers, at 30% higher than the national average.
• The number of Latino workers killed on the job was 1,229; 68.5% were immigrants, a larger percentage than in previous years.

Older workers and minors are at serious risk. 

In 2024: 

• More than one-third of workplace fatalities occurred among workers ages 55 and older.
• Workers 65 and older have nearly three times the risk of dying on the job as other workers, with a job fatality rate of 9.1 per 100,000 workers.
• The rate of young worker deaths increased from 1.3 in 2022 to 1.9 in 2023 and then to 2.7 in 2024—nearly doubling the rate from 2020.
• Many children, mostly migrants, have become the focus of stark exploitation, working in dangerous conditions.

OSHA resources in FY 2025 still are too few to be a deterrent:

• Federal OSHA has the lowest number of inspectors in the history of the agency—only enough to now inspect workplaces once every 191 years—and state OSHA plans have one fewer inspector compared with FY 2024. By comparison, it would have taken federal OSHA 84 years to inspect each workplace once in 1991, as written in our first report published in 1992.
• There are 1,651 inspectors (618 federal and 1,033 state) to inspect the 12 million workplaces under the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s jurisdiction, covering 155 million workers—a workforce that keeps growing while OSHA staff numbers do not. In 1991, there were 1,953 federal and state inspectors to cover 6.5 million workplaces and 107 million workers under OSHA’s jurisdiction.
• There is one inspector for every 93,877 workers. By comparison, there was one inspector for every 54,952 workers in 1991.
• The current OSHA budget amounts to $3.85 available to protect each worker. In 1991, the OSHA budget amounted to $6.53 per worker after inflation adjustments.

Penalties in FY 2025:

• The average penalty for a serious violation was $4,678 for federal OSHA.
• The average penalty for a serious violation was $2,720 for OSHA state plans.
• The median penalty for killing a worker was $16,550 for federal OSHA.
• The median penalty for killing a worker was $10,550 for state OSHA plans.
• Only 144 worker death cases have been criminally prosecuted under the Occupational Safety and Health Act since 1970.

Job safety oversight and enforcement: 

The report notes that the current administration has: 

• Pushed out so many staff that job safety agency staffing is at new lows, leaving fewer inspectors than ever to cover a growing workforce.
• Instructed its OSHA and MSHA inspectors to focus on employer outreach and assistance, taking time and resources away from inspections with citations.
• Expanded OSHA penalty reductions for employers when they violate the law.
• Proposed twice to eliminate worker safety and health training grants, even though Congress has rejected these cuts so far.
• Proposed to eliminate the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, in charge of independent, nonregulatory investigations after an industrial explosion, leak or other major incident.
• Stopped conducting MSHA impact inspections, a critical enforcement tool for focusing on mines with a poor history of compliance with MSHA standards, high numbers of injuries, illnesses or fatalities, or other indicators of unsafe mines.
• Issued zero criminal referrals for violations of the OSH Act.
• Indefinitely halted the enforcement of the silica standard in coal and metal/nonmetal mining.
• Extended deadlines for companies to comply with important Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chemical regulations that specifically protect workers, such as methylene chloride.
• Proposed to remove dozens of OSHA and MSHA standards from the books and supported efforts to dismantle the regulatory process.