Construction trades see uptick in fatalities in 2018

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its 2018 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries report Dec. 17. The report shows that construction professions as a whole accounted for 1,008 deaths in 2018 (compared with 971 in 2017). There were 200 deaths in the category of construction of buildings (compared with 196 in 2017), 208 in heavy and civil engineering construction (compared with 152 in 2017), and 610 among specialty trade contractors (which was even year over year).

The fatal work injury rate for all construction professionals remained unchanged at 9.5 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers.

In 2016, the BLS began identifying fatal injuries to independent workers. Independent workers are classified as being involved in a work relationship that is finite and involves a single task, short-term contract or freelance work.

Occupations with the most fatal work injuries to independent workers in 2018 were heavy and tractor trailer-truck drivers (96), followed by first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers (61), and construction laborers (48).

Within all occupations, there were 5,250 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2018, a 2 percent increase from the 5,147 in 2017. The fatal work injury rate remained unchanged at 3.5 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers.