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Not only is your job irritating and stress-inducing, it might be deadly — even if you work behind a desk.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in recent years, an average of 11 Americans die on the job every single day and another roughly 50,000 die annually because of illnesses they contracted on the job — meaning that working kills roughly 54,000 Americans every year (and injures millions more).
“These numbers are unacceptable to all of us, because as a nation we no longer accept the premise that injuries and fatalities are just part of the cost of doing business,” a DOL article from Monday read.
While construction, mining, agriculture, transportation and warehousing jobs tend to have the highest risks, those of you with desk jobs aren’t exempt from keeling over at work, according to the National Safety Council’s Injury Facts 2014 report. Indeed, more than 400 people in BOTH professional and business services jobs (these include things like accountants, lawyers, engineers and architects) and government jobs died at work in 2012.
Workers die on the job every day in America
Unintentional deaths and injuries at work by industry, 2013
| Industry | Number of at-work deaths | At-work deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting | 479 | 22.2 |
| Mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction | 154 | 12.3 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 687 | 13.1 |
| Construction | 796 | 9.4 |
| Wholesale trade | 190 | 5.1 |
| Utilities | 23 | 2.4 |
| Professional and business services | 408 | 2.6 |
| Manufacturing | 304 | 2.0 |
| Government | 476 | 2.0 |
| Other services (excluding public administration) | 179 | 2.6 |
| Leisure and hospitality | 202 | 1.8 |
| Retail trade | 253 | 1.8 |
| Information | 39 | 1.4 |
| Financial activities | 84 | 0.9 |
| Educational and health services | 131 | 0.7 |
| Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics | ||
So what’s likely to kill you at work? The number one thing is transportation incidents (this killed nearly 2,000 people while at work in 2011, according to the National Safety Council, with the most common incident involving on-the-road car accidents). That’s followed by violence in the workplace, which typically consists of violent acts intentionally performed by another person, though in 37 cases the violent acts were committed by animals.
Before you run for the exit, it’s important to note that it’s highly unlikely you’ll die on the job — and that’s even truer now than in the past: While in 1992, 4.2 workers per 100,000 died at work, just 3.2 per 100,000 did in 2013 (though this is higher than the 2.7 per 100,000 that died at work in 2012). To read more depressing facts about dying at work, check out the NSC’s report here.
