Fatal work injuries totaled 162 in 2021 for Pennsylvania, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Alexandra Hall Bovee noted that the number of fatal workplace injuries in Pennsylvania was up from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 354 in 1994 to a low of 148 in 2020. Nationwide, a total of 5,190 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2021, a 9-percent increase from 4,764 in 2020, according to the results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).

  

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Chart 1. Number of fatal occupational injuries by employee status, Pennsylvania, 2012–21

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2012	194	164	30
2013	183	140	43
2014	179	137	42
2015	173	146	27
2016	163	130	33
2017	172	133	39
2018	177	138	39
2019	154	128	26
2020	148	107	41
2021	162	138	24

In Pennsylvania, transportation incidents resulted in 59 fatal work injuries, falls, slips, and trips accounted for 30 fatalities, and contact with objects and equipment accounted for 29 fatalities. These three major categories accounted for 73 percent of all fatal workplace injuries in the state. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Worker deaths from transportation incidents were up from 49 over the year, worker fatalities due to falls, slips, and trips were up from 28, and fatal work injuries from contact with objects and equipment were up from 27.

Exposure to harmful substances or environments was the fourth-most frequent fatal work event with 24 fatalities, down from 25 in the prior year.

Nationally, transportation incidents was the most frequent fatal event in 2021, accounting for 38 percent of fatal work injuries. Falls, slips, and trips was the second-most common fatal event (16 percent), followed by both exposure to harmful substances or environments and violence and other injuries by persons or animals (15 percent each) and contact with objects and equipment (14 percent).

  

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Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and Pennsylvania, 2021

Event	United States	Pennsylvania
Transportation incidents	38.2	36.4
Falls, slips, trips	16.4	18.5
Contact with objects and equipment	13.6	17.9
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15.4	14.8
All other	16.5	12.3

The private transportation and warehousing industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in Pennsylvania with 34, up from 25 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Transportation incidents resulted in 25 of the 34 fatalities in the industry. The truck transportation subsector accounted for 23 of the 34 fatal workplace injuries in the transportation and warehousing industry.

The private construction industry sector had 29 fatal workplace injuries, down from 30 in the previous year. The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 18, or 62 percent, of the fatal injuries in this industry.

The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 51. (See table 3.) Motor vehicle operators accounted for 37 of the 51 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers, or 73 percent. Of those, 31 were heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers.

The construction and extraction occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 36. Construction trade workers suffered 28 of the work-related deaths within the construction and extraction group, or 78 percent. Of those, 11 were construction laborers.

• Men accounted for 94 percent of the work-related fatalities in Pennsylvania, similar to the national share of 91 percent. (See table 4.) Transportation incidents made up 36 percent of the fatalities for men in Pennsylvania.

• White non-Hispanics accounted for 72 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 60 percent of work-related deaths.

• Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 62 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2021, compared to 57 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.

• Of the 162 fatal work injuries in Pennsylvania, 85 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. The most frequent fatal event for wage and salary workers was transportation incidents; transportation incidents was also the most frequent fatal event for self-employed workers in addition to falls, slips, and trips and exposure to harmful substances or environments which all had five fatalities.

Background of the program. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Safety and Health Statistics (OSHS) program, is a count of all fatalities resulting from workplace injuries occurring in the U.S. during the calendar year. The CFOI uses a variety of state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries. This ensures counts are as complete and accurate as possible. For the 2021 national data, over 23,900 unique source documents were reviewed as part of the data collection process. For technical information and definitions for the CFOI, see the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/home.htm and the CFOI definitions at www.bls.gov/iif/definitions/occupational-safety-and-health-definitions.htm.

Federal/State agency coverage. The CFOI includes data for all fatal work injuries, some of which may be outside the scope of other agencies or regulatory coverage. Comparisons between CFOI counts and those released by other agencies should account for the different coverage requirements and definitions used by each agency. For more information on the scope of CFOI, see www.bls.gov/iif/overview/cfoi-scope.htm and www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/concepts.htm.

Latency Cases. Latent fatal occupational injury cases occur when the date of injury differs from the date of death. In some cases, the death occurs in a different year than the occupational injury and are known as cross-year latent cases. In 2021, there were 197 cases nationally where this occurred, and 174 of these latent cases occurred more than 30 days prior to the start of 2021. For more information on latent cases, see www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-10/latency-in-fatal-occupational-injuries.htm.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. CFOI reports fatal workplace injuries only. These may include fatal workplace injuries complicated by an illness such as COVID-19. Fatal workplace illnesses not precipitated by an injury are not in scope for CFOI. CFOI does not report any illness related information, including COVID-19. Additional information is available at www.bls.gov/covid19/effects-of-covid-19-on-workplace-injuries-and-illnesses-compensation-and-occupational-requirements.htm.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the Pennsylvania Department of Health for their efforts in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and useful data on fatal work injuries. BLS also appreciates the efforts of all federal, state, local, and private sector entities that provided source documents used to identify fatal work injuries. Among these agencies are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; the National Transportation Safety Board; the U.S. Coast Guard; the Mine Safety and Health Administration; the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (Federal Employees' Compensation and Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation divisions); the Federal Railroad Administration; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; state vital statistics registrars, coroners, and medical examiners; state departments of health, labor, and industrial relations and workers' compensation agencies; state and local police departments; and state farm bureaus.

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