Fatal work injuries totaled 81 in 2023 for New Jersey, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Alexandra Hall Bovee noted that the number of work-related fatalities in New Jersey was down from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 145 in 1993 to a low of 69 in 2017. Nationwide, a total of 5,283 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2023, a 3.7-percent decrease from 5,486 in 2022, 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, New Jersey, 2014–23

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2014	87	70	17
2015	97	83	14
2016	101	85	16
2017	69	50	19
2018	83	68	15
2019	74	56	18
2020	82	66	16
2021	110	90	20
2022	116	95	21
2023	81	64	17
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Falls, slips, and trips and exposure to harmful substances or environments were both the most frequent types of fatal events in New Jersey, with 19 fatalities each. Combined, they accounted for 47 percent of all fatal work injuries in the state. Nationally, falls, slips, and trips accounted for 17 percent and exposure to harmful substances or environments was 16 percent. (See chart 2 and table 1.)

• Transportation incidents (17) accounted for 21 percent of New Jersey workplace fatalities; nationally the share was 37 percent.

  

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Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and New Jersey, 2023

Event	United States	New Jersey
Falls, slips, trips	17	23
Exposure to harmful substances, environments	16	23
Transportation incidents	37	21
Contact incidents	15	16
All other	16	16
Note: Percents may not add to total due to rounding. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• The construction sector had 18 fatalities. (See table 2.)

• Falls, slips, and trips resulted in 10 of the 18 construction sector fatalities.

• The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 11 of the sector’s fatal workplace injuries.

• The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 19. (See table 3.)

• Transportation incidents resulted in 9 of the transportation and material moving fatalities.

• Driver/sales workers and truck drivers accounted for 11 of the major group’s fatal workplace injuries.

• Wage and salary workers accounted for 79 percent of workplace fatalities in New Jersey; the self-employed comprised the remaining 21 percent. (See chart 1 and table 4.) Nationally, wage and salary workers comprised 83 percent of fatalities.

• Males accounted for 95 percent of the work-related fatalities in New Jersey; the national share was 91 percent.

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

• White non-Hispanics accounted for 63 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 56 percent of work-related deaths.

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. For technical information and definitions for the CFOI, see the national CFOI release Technical notes, the BLS Handbook of Methods, and the CFOI definitions.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the New Jersey 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 nationally. See the national CFOI release Technical Notes for details on cooperating entities.

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