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Fatal Occupational Injuries

Summary Indicator Report Data View Options

Year20082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220230.00.51.01.52.02.53.03.54.0Rate per 100,000 Employed Persons Aged 16 Years and OlderFatal Occupational Injuries by Year, All Industries, New Jersey and the United States, 2008 to 2023New JerseyUnited States
Year20082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220230.02.04.06.08.010.012.014.0Rate per 100,000 Employed Construction Workers Aged 16 Years and OlderFatal Occupational Injuries by Year, Construction, New Jersey, 2008 to 2023

Why Is This Important?

Each day, U.S. workers suffer injury, disability, and death from workplace incidents. In 2023, 5,283 U.S. workers died from an occupational injury and approximately 2.6 million workers had a nonfatal injury or illness. Occupational injuries are largely preventable, and ongoing surveillance of occupational fatalities can help public health and other governmental agencies track and prevent future work-related fatal injuries.

Definition

Fatal occupational injuries among employed persons age 16 years and older, when the injury occurred while the individual was working for pay, or volunteering in the same capacity as other paid workers, at the time of the event, and engaged in a legal work activity either on or off of the employer's premises.

Data Source

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor
(https://www.bls.gov/)

How the Measure is Calculated

Numerator:Number of fatal occupational injuries during a specified time interval, excluding workers under the age of 16, volunteers, or resident military.
Denominator:Estimated number of employed persons age 16 years and older during a specified time interval. Fatal injury rates exclude workers under the age of 16 years, volunteers, and resident military.

How Are We Doing?

New Jersey annual rates from 2008 to 2023, for all injuries, ranged from 1.6-2.7 fatalities per 100,000 employed persons in comparison to the U.S. rates of 3.4-3.7 fatalities per 100,000 employed persons. During 2023, fatal occupational injuries in New Jersey were predominantly male (95%) and 26% ranged in age from 55-64 years. Sixty-three percent of the decedents were White and 25% were Hispanic. The most common types of fatal occupational injury events were exposure to harmful substances or environments (23%); falls, slips, trips (23%); and transportation incidents (21%).

Annual rates from 2008-2023 for construction industry ranged from 5.6-12.7 fatalities per 100,000 equivalent full-time workers. In 2023, of the 81 workers who died from work-related injuries, 16 (20%) of these deaths occurred in the construction industry.

Available Services

Additional information on surveillance activities related to the prevention of fatal workplace injuries can be obtained from the NJ Department of Health's Occupational Health Surveillance Unit.

Health Program Information

The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) collects data on fatal occupational injuries from various federal, state, and local source documents, including death certificates, workers' compensation reports, medical examiner reports, media reports, and police reports. To be included in CFOI, the decedent must have been employed at the time of the event, or volunteering in the same capacity as other paid workers, been engaged in legal work activity or been present at a site as a job requirement. Public- and private-sector noninstitutionalized workers (e.g., wage and salary, self-employed, and volunteer) are included. CFOI excludes deaths that occurred during a workers' normal commute to and from work and deaths related to occupational illnesses (e.g., lung disease or cancer).

Summary reports of fatal occupational injuries in New Jersey are available at: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/NIOSH-FACE/