Andrey Kamenov, Ph.D. Probability and Statistics

The most dangerous jobs are usually the ones we associate with manual labor. Heavy and civil engineering construction is an industry sector that usually comes to mind when thinking about occupational injuries. Well, it’s certainly risky at around 20 fatal injuries per 100,000 employees per year; however, it’s far from having the most dangerous jobs in the country.

Just take a look at the chart.

The most dangerous jobs (economy subsectors)

Fishing, hunting and trapping are the most unsafe job sectors, according to the data. Well, this shouldn’t surprise anyone; just imagine the risk of being caught in a storm offshore! The surprising number (for me, at least) is just how dangerous this is. Think of it — jobs in this sector are 16 times riskier than the most dangerous jobs in construction!

What about the absolute numbers? The number of fatal incidents on fishing vessels has decreased substantially. In the 2000s, there were around 50 each year. In 2015, only 23 incidents were recorded. Industries with lower injury rates but much larger employment numbers can certainly have a larger economic and social impact.

Another question arises from working with that many numbers: How do we classify different industries? Utilizing the NAICS system is not perfect, as it was designed for a completely different purpose.

We handled this the following way: Starting from the lowest available classification level, we joined different industry classes that have similar injury rates. For example, long-distance general freight trucking has an incidence rate similar to its local counterpart; therefore, they are both represented by a single point.

Here’s a detailed chart visualizing both individual industries and industry categories. This allows you to compare the total number of injuries, as well as the injury rates per 100,000 employees.

Fatal occupational injuries per year nationwide, 2013-2015

So, what are the most dangerous jobs in the U.S.? Those located on the upper-left border of the chart; besides fishing, these include taxi service jobs, logging, highway & bridge construction and trucking.

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