New statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in 2020, 4,764 American workers died after suffering injuries while working. This was down by more than 10 percent from 2019. Obviously, with millions of people working from home and the shutdown of many businesses due to the pandemic, it is not surprising that workplace fatalities were down in 2020.
When we break down the figures by racial and ethnic group, we see that 541 African Americans died from work related-injuries in 2020. This was 11.4 percent of all work-related fatalities due to injury, down slightly from 2019. Hispanics were 22.5 percent of all work-related fatalities due to injuries in 2020.
Before the pandemic, the number of African American deaths due to injuries suffered on the job had been increasing. In 2015, 495 African Americans died as a result of work-related injuries. This had climbed to 634 in 2019, an increase of 28 percent. This was more than double the increase for the population as a whole.
