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On December 19th, 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its 2023 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), providing a count of workplace fatalities in the U.S. during the calendar year. In total, the BLS recorded 5,283 workplace fatalities in 2023. This is a 3.7 percent decrease from 5,486 in 2022. Subsequently, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has interpreted this decrease in fatal occupational injuries as a meaningful decline. By and large, over the past three years, the agency tried to double its enforcement efforts after workplace deaths occurred. Recently, OSHA finalized a rule on proper fit requirements for personal protective equipment used in the construction industry.
Background of the CFOI
Prepared by the BLS and the Occupational Safety and Health Statistics (OSHS) program, the CFOI is a count of all workplace fatalities during a given calendar year. The CFOI cross-references data from a variety of state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and discover the cause of fatal workplace injuries. For fatalities to be included within the CFOI, the decedents must have been:
- Employed at the time of the incident, and
- Engaged in a legal work activity or present at the site of the incident as required by their job.
The CFOI excludes any fatality that occurred during an employee’s commute to or from work. Data reported include occupation, worker characteristics, any equipment involved, and the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Overview of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2023
Altogether, the 2023 CFOI reported 5,283 fatal work injuries, down 3.7 percent from 5,486 in 2022. The figure amounted to 3.5 workplace fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. Notably, this means that in 2023, a worker died every 99 minutes from a workplace injury. Other key findings from the CFOI include:
- Transportation-related incidents were the most frequent type of fatal workplace event, with a total of 1,942 fatal occupational injuries or 36.8 percent of all workplace fatalities.
- Fatalities due to violent acts totaled 740 in 2023. Homicides (458) accounted for 61.9 percent of that violent act total. It also ended up accounting for 8.7 percent of all work-related fatalities.
- Opioids were the primary source of 162 fatalities and a contributor to an additional 144 fatalities where multiple drugs were the source.
- The fatal injury count and rate for Black or African American workers decreased from 2022 to 2023. The count dropped 10.2 percent from 734 in 2022 to 659 in 2023, and the rate dropped from 4.2 to 3.6 cases per 100,000 FTE workers.
- Women accounted for 8.5 percent (447) of all fatalities but accounted for 18.3 percent (84) of homicides in 2023.
- Workers ages 55 to 64 continued to have the highest number of fatalities in 2023, with 1,089 (20.6 percent of total fatalities).
- The fatal injury rate for Hispanic or Latino workers decreased from 2022 to 2023, down from 4.6 to 4.4 cases per 100,000 FTE workers.
- Workers ages 25 to 34 had the highest number of fatalities due to violent acts (179), including 121 homicides and 58 suicides.
Employer Takeaways
In conclusion, according to the BLS and OSHA, the recent decrease in fatal occupational injuries proves that specific safety practices lead to safer workplaces. Employers can find additional information on six common workplace hazards to address here. In summary, all workplaces must prioritize the well-being of their workforce. Specifically, they should focus on injury and illness prevention to create safer and healthier work environments.
For this reason, WorkWise Compliance offers the Customizable Injury & Illness Prevention Plan (IIPP) Creator. This compliance solution includes a 15-minute interactive tutorial, questions to help create the type of plan that applies to the business, and a questionnaire that auto-generates a written plan. That customized written plan is then emailed with further refinement and implementation instructions.
By creating an IIPP for your specific workplace, you are showing good-faith compliance with requirements dictated under the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and various state OSHA plans that mandate written injury & illness prevention plans.
