September 30, 1998 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Job-related deaths are less likely for women

Women suffered 2,506 (or 8 percent) of the 31,567 job-related fatalities reported from 1992 to 1996. During the same time period, women accounted for slightly less than 50 percent of the workforce.

[Chart data—TXT]

Women suffered only slightly over one third of the 2 million cases of work-related injuries and illnesses that resulted in days away from work. Women accounted for more cases than men of carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, respiratory system diseases, infectious and parasitic diseases, and disorders resulting from anxiety and stress.

Women may experience fewer job-related deaths and injuries because they typically are employed in less dangerous jobs such as teaching or other service occupations. Few women work in the construction trades or in other high-risk jobs where work is performed outdoors.

Additional information on job-related deaths is available from the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries program; additional information on work-related injuries and illnesses is available from the BLS Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. More detail on deaths, injuries, and illnesses by gender is available from "Issues in Labor Statistics: Women Experience Fewer Job-related Injuries and Deaths than Men." For a thorough analysis of women's injuries and illnesses, see "Work Injuries and Illnesses Occurring to Women" (PDF 42K), Compensation and Working Conditions, Summer 1998.