Industrial safety statistics show the scale and varied character of workplace risk in the United States. In 2023, private-industry employers reported millions of nonfatal cases, while the national fatal-injury census recorded thousands of deaths across transportation, construction, manufacturing, and other sectors.
Key Industrial Safety Statistics
The figures below summarize the most useful measures across nonfatal cases, fatal events, industries, worker groups, and OSHA submissions:
- In 2023, 2.569 million nonfatal occupational injury and illness cases were reported by U.S. private-industry employers.
- In 2023, 2.3689 million of those private-industry cases were injuries.
- In 2023, 200,100 private-industry illness cases were reported, 56.6% below 2022.
- In 2023, the private-industry total-recordable-case rate was 2.4 per 100 full-time-equivalent workers.
- In 2023, 946,500 private-industry cases involved days away from work.
- In 2023, 5,283 fatal work injuries were recorded across all U.S. ownerships.
- In 2023, the national fatal work-injury rate was 3.5 per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers.
- In 2023, transportation incidents caused 1,942 occupational fatalities, or 36.8% of all fatalities.
- In 2023, construction recorded 1,075 fatal work injuries, the highest count among industry sectors.
- In 2023, 421 construction fatalities resulted from falls, slips, and trips.
- In 2023, manufacturing recorded 355,800 total recordable cases at 2.8 per 100 full-time-equivalent workers.
- In 2023, health care and social assistance recorded 562,500 total recordable cases at 3.6 per 100 full-time-equivalent workers.
- In 2023, 391 manufacturing fatalities were recorded, including 120 contact incidents.
- From 2022 to 2023, the fatal-injury rate for Black or African American workers fell from 4.2 to 3.6 per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers.
- In 2023, foreign-born Hispanic or Latino workers represented 839 of 1,250 Hispanic or Latino worker fatalities.
- In 2023, OSHA’s detailed release covered more than 890,000 injuries and illnesses at more than 91,000 workplaces.
- In OSHA’s 2023 selected-sector 300A submissions, manufacturing contained 279,896 cases, with 90.8% classified as injuries.
Contents
- Workplace injury and illness scale
- Industrial safety data by industry and case type
- Fatal industrial safety trends and event categories
- Construction and manufacturing safety data
- Worker groups and fatality trends
- OSHA case-detail statistics
Workplace Injury and Illness Scale in Industrial Safety Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) provides employer-reported estimates for U.S. private industry. Its 2023 universe excludes farms with fewer than 11 employees, and published estimates are rounded; annual comparisons use unrounded data. BLS, Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses—2023 A01 Results
| 2023 private-industry measure | Result | Comparison or definition |
|---|---|---|
| Total recordable cases | 2.569 million | All reported injuries and illnesses |
| Injuries | 2.3689 million | Component of total cases |
| Illnesses | 200,100 | 56.6% below 2022 |
| Total-recordable-case rate | 2.4 per 100 FTE workers | Down from 2.7 in 2022 |
| Injury rate | 2.2 per 100 FTE workers | Down from 2.3 in 2022 |
| Illness rate | 19.0 per 10,000 FTE workers | Down from 45.2 in 2022 |
Respiratory illnesses fell 72.6% to 100,200 cases in 2023. Because the illness rate uses cases per 10,000 FTE workers while the injury rate uses cases per 100 FTE workers, the two rates should not be read as directly equivalent measures.
Cases involving days away from work (DAFW) totaled 946,500 in 2023, down 20.1% from 2022, while the DAFW rate fell to 0.9 per 100 FTE workers from 1.2. Days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR) totaled 581,000 and represented 38.0% of DART cases.
Industrial Safety Data by Industry and Case Type
Industry totals and incidence rates show why scale and rate answer different questions. A large sector can report many cases because it employs many people, while the rate standardizes cases against full-time-equivalent employment.
| Private industry, 2023 | Total recordable cases | Rate per 100 FTE workers |
|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 562,500 | 3.6 |
| Manufacturing | 355,800 | 2.8 |
| Retail trade | 353,900 | 3.1 |
| Food manufacturing | 61,400 | 3.6 |
Health care and social assistance recorded 471,600 injury cases in 2023, 27,800 more than in 2022. Manufacturing recorded 326,400 injuries, down 21,400, while wholesale trade recorded 127,000, down 11,900.
Food and beverage stores recorded 78,200 injuries, up 6.5% from 2022, and 7,900 illnesses, down 78.7%. Food manufacturing’s total case rate was 3.6 per 100 FTE workers, compared with 4.6 in 2022.
Couriers and messengers recorded 77,000 cases in 2023, equal to 29.0% of the 265,700 cases in transportation and warehousing. These figures are SOII estimates for private industry, not a single measure of every workplace or every ownership type.
BLS, Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses—2023 A01 Results
Fatal Industrial Safety Trends and Leading Event Categories
The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) counted 5,283 fatal work injuries in the United States in 2023, down 3.7% from 5,486 in 2022. The fatal-injury rate declined from 3.7 to 3.5 per 100,000 FTE workers, and BLS presented the 2023 count as one worker dying every 99 minutes from a work-related injury.
| Fatal event category, U.S. all ownerships, 2023 | Fatalities | Share or note |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation incidents | 1,942 | 36.8% of all occupational fatalities |
| Violent acts | 740 | CFOI event category |
| Homicides | 458 | 61.9% of violent-act fatalities; 8.7% of all fatalities |
Opioids were the primary source in 162 fatal work injuries and a contributor in 144 additional multiple-drug fatalities. The primary-source and contributing-source counts are not additive totals.
CFOI measures fatal work injuries and excludes illness-related deaths unless an injury event precipitated them. This distinction matters when comparing fatality data with SOII illness estimates.
BLS, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries—2023 A01 Results
Construction and Manufacturing Safety Data
Construction had 1,075 fatal work injuries in 2023, the highest count among industry sectors. Falls, slips, and trips caused 421 construction fatalities, transportation incidents caused 240, harmful-substance or environmental exposures caused 200, and contact incidents caused 148.
| Construction or manufacturing group, 2023 | Fatalities | Selected event counts |
|---|---|---|
| Construction | 1,075 | 421 falls/slips/trips; 240 transportation |
| Specialty trade contractors | 656 | 292 falls/slips/trips; 125 transportation |
| Construction of buildings | 211 | 97 falls/slips/trips |
| Residential building construction | 134 | 62 falls/slips/trips |
| Heavy and civil engineering construction | 170 | 79 transportation |
| Manufacturing | 391 | 120 contact; 80 transportation |
Within construction, specialty trade contractors recorded 656 fatalities, construction of buildings recorded 211, residential building construction recorded 134, and heavy and civil engineering construction recorded 170. The BLS detailed table notes that dashes and suppressed cells are not necessarily zeroes.
Manufacturing recorded 391 fatalities, including 120 contact incidents and 80 transportation incidents. Fabricated metal product manufacturing recorded 59 fatalities, food manufacturing 50, nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing 42, and basic chemical manufacturing 3; small counts may have unpublished or suppressed event-level cells.
BLS, Table A-1: Fatal occupational injuries by industry and event or exposure, 2023
Worker Groups and Fatal Industrial Safety Trends
Fatality counts and rates can differ by worker group, and a sector count is not the same as a group-specific risk rate. The 2023 CFOI figures provide both demographic trends and selected event counts.
Fatalities among Black or African American workers fell 10.2%, from 734 in 2022 to 659 in 2023. Their fatal-injury rate declined from 4.2 to 3.6 per 100,000 FTE workers, while the Hispanic or Latino worker rate declined from 4.6 to 4.4.
Transportation incidents caused 261 fatalities among Black or African American workers and 390 among Hispanic or Latino workers in 2023. Transportation and warehousing had the highest private-sector count for Black or African American workers, at 200 fatalities, while construction had the highest private-sector count for Hispanic or Latino workers, at 410.
Foreign-born Hispanic or Latino workers represented 839 of the 1,250 Hispanic or Latino worker fatalities, or 67.1%. Among workers ages 25 to 34, violent acts caused 179 fatalities, including 121 homicides and 58 suicides.
BLS, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries—2023 A01 Results
OSHA Industrial Safety Case-Detail Statistics
OSHA’s detailed 2023 release covered more than 890,000 injuries and illnesses at more than 91,000 workplaces subject to applicable electronic reporting requirements. It is a reporting dataset, not a census of all workplaces, and its 300A summary submissions must be kept separate from 300/301 case-detail submissions.
| Sector, 2023 OSHA selected-sector data | 300A cases and composition | 300/301 cases and composition |
|---|---|---|
| Construction | 78,641; 96.7% injuries | 11,237; 96.4% injuries |
| Manufacturing | 279,896; 90.8% injuries; 3.2% hearing loss | 153,367; 88.8% injuries; 3.5% hearing loss |
| Transportation and warehousing | 250,319; 95.3% injuries; 0.8% respiratory | Not listed in supplied case-detail comparison |
| Health care and social assistance | 375,111; 82.7% injuries; 11.8% respiratory | 243,454; 83.0% injuries; 11.4% respiratory |
In the 300A construction data, respiratory conditions were 0.6% of cases and other illnesses were 2.0%. In the 300/301 data, retail-trade hearing loss was 3.3% of cases, compared with 1.4% overall for that submission type.
These OSHA percentages describe case-type composition within selected submissions. They are not general-population prevalence estimates and should not be combined with BLS SOII totals as though the populations were identical.
OSHA, 2023 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary
OSHA, release of detailed 2023 case data