1 US Worker Dies on the Job Every 96 Minutes, Latest Data Shows

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics documents a significant jump in on the job deaths in the US.

Current workplace fatality figures, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in December 2023, show that on-the-job deaths in the United States have jumped significantly, reaching their highest level in ten years.

The results, obtained as part of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), analyzed information collected over the course of 2022 — and documented a notable 5.7 percent increase in workplace deaths in the U.S. during the relevant 2021-2022 census period.

The toll represented a 10-year high for fatal work injuries. Nearly 6,000 U.S. workers died on the job — and, another BLS survey found, a startling total of 2.8 million were injured or sickened.

Worker safety in the U.S., while comparing favorably to industrializing postcolonial states, is not commensurate with the nation’s wealth, nor with the standards of other developed capitalist countries. The grim results of 2022 are the consequences of collapsing regulatory oversight and the degradation of worker power in the U.S. — two hallmarks of the neoliberal era and its consolidated corporate dominance.