New statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in 2022, 5,486 American workers died after suffering injuries while working. This was up by 5.7 percent from 2021. A worker died every 96 minutes from a work-related injury in 2022 compared to every 101 minutes in 2021. Fatalities due to violence and other injuries by persons or animals increased 11.6 percent to 849 in 2022, compared to 761 in 2021. Homicides accounted for 61.7 percent of these fatalities, with 524 deaths, an 8.9 percent increase from 2021. Suicides increased 13.1 percent to 267 fatalities in 2022.
When we break down the figures by racial and ethnic group, we see that 734 African Americans died from work-related injuries in 2022. This was up 12.4 percent from 2021 after a huge increase of 20.7 percent from 2020 to 2021. The workplace fatality rate for Black workers was 4.2 per 100,000 workers, higher than the rate for the nation as a whole. African Americans made up 13.4 percent of all work-related fatalities due to injury, up from 12.6 percent in 2021. The number of Black Americans killed at work in 2022 was the highest number recorded since statistics on workplace fatalities have been collected.
Transportation incidents were the highest cause of fatalities for Black or African American workers with 267 deaths. The second highest cause of fatalities for Black or African American workers was injuries due to violence and other injuries by persons or animals (199). More than a quarter of Black or African American workplace fatalities (27.1 percent) are a result of violence and other injuries by persons or animals as opposed to 15.4 percent for all workers.
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. In 2022, the figure was 734, an increase of 48.2 percent.
