Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities > Publications > Factsheets

Fact Sheet | Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction | July 2017

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction¹

Fatal work injuries in the private mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector were 34 percent lower in 2015 than in 2014. There were 120 fatalities in 2015, compared with 183 in 2014. The fatal injury rate decreased to 11.4 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2015 from 14.2 per 100,000 in 2014. For more detailed information on fatal injuries by industry, see the industry tables in the 2015 data section at www.bls.gov/iif/fatal-injuries-tables.htm. You can also find more information on fatal injury rates at https://www.bls.gov/iif/fatal-injuries-tables.htm#rates.

For more information on both fatal and nonfatal data in the private mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector please see the Beyond the Numbers article Injuries, illnesses, and fatal injuries in mining in 2010.

Oil and gas extraction

Oil and gas extraction industries include oil and gas extraction (North American Industry Classification System—NAICS—21111), drilling oil and gas wells (NAICS 213111), and support activities for oil and gas operations (NAICS 213112).

The number of fatal work injury cases in oil and gas extraction industries was 38 percent lower in 2015 than in 2014, falling to 89 from 144. Oil and gas extraction industries made up 74 percent of the total fatalities in the mining sector in 2015.

The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries typically combines these industries into a single category to best cover private oil and gas extraction industries. See the chart below for 13 years of data on oil and gas extraction industries. More detailed information is available on fatal occupational injuries in the oil and gas extraction industries table.

View data

Counts are available for this combined group, but BLS does not publish a fatal injury rate for the combined oil and gas extraction industries shown in the chart. BLS only calculates rates for NAICS 21111, oil and gas extraction, which makes up only 7 percent of the fatal injuries of the combined oil and gas industries in 2015. BLS does not calculate rates for the other two industries because employment data are not available for those industries. In 2014, the fatality rate for NAICS 21111 was 15.6 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, a rate was not calculated for this industry in 2015 as it did not meet the threshold criteria. Rates for other industries are at https://www.bls.gov/iif/fatal-injuries-tables.htm#rates.

You can discuss the larger oil and gas extraction industries (NAICS 21111, 213111, and 213112) using counts or the smaller oil and gas extraction industry (NAICS 21111) using counts or fatal injury rates.

Nonfatal oil and gas industry data are available from our profiles tool. This tool allows you to select a data series on the number of cases or rates involving days away from work, cases and rates of all Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-recordable cases, and fatal injury cases. You also can select geographic area, year(s), and industry, occupation, and selected case characteristics. You can use this tool to get data for the three oil and gas extraction industries, but the tool does not combine these industries.

For more information on the oil and gas extraction industry (and related oil and gas topics) see the following facts sheets and articles:

Coal mining

Coal mining recorded fewer fatal work injuries in 2015 than in 2014; there were 12 in 2015, compared with 14 in 2014. Coal mining fatalities made up 10 percent of the total mining sector in 2015.

For more information on the coal mining industry, see the following facts sheets and articles:

Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities in the Coal Mining Industry April 2010
Coal Mining Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities in 2006 June 2008
Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities in the Coal Mining Industry August 2007

More information

For technical information and definitions, please see the BLS Handbook of Methods.

You can obtain data from the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program by using the following tools: Create Customized Tables (Multiple Screens), Create Customized Tables (Single Screen), and the Online Profiles System. Additional tables and charts are on the IIF homepage and the IIF State page.

Source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fatality data are from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. Nonfatal injury and illness data are from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.

Notes

1 The private mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector industry sector includes such subsectors as oil and gas extraction, coal mining, metal ore mining, nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying, and support activities for mining. The IIF program uses the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to define industry. From 2003 to 2008 the IIF program used the 2002 NAICS. For 2009 to 2013 data, the IIF program used the 2007 NAICS to classify industry data. Since 2014, the IIF program has used the 2012 NAICS. More on NAICS can be found here: https://www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.