Fatal work injuries totaled 70 in 2021 for New York City, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley noted that the number of work-related fatalities in New York City was up from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the city have ranged from a high of 191 in 1993 to a low of 56 in 2013 and 2016. 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, New York City, 2012–21

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2012	76	57	19
2013	56	43	13
2014	79	62	17
2015	74	62	12
2016	56	50	6
2017	87	73	14
2018	73	66	7
2019	91	84	7
2020	59	51	8
2021	70	59	11

In New York City, exposure to harmful substances or environments resulted in 21 fatal work injuries, and falls, slips, and trips accounted for 20 fatalities. These two major categories accounted for 59 percent of all fatal workplace injuries in the city. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Worker deaths from exposure to harmful substances or environments were up from 17 in 2020. Of the 21 fatalities resulting from harmful exposures in 2021, 17 involved nonmedical use of drugs or alcohol—unintentional overdose. Worker fatalities due to falls, slips, or trips were up from 13 during the previous year.

Violence and other injuries by persons or animals was the third-most frequent fatal work event with 17 fatalities, up from 13 in the prior year. Contact with objects or equipment resulted in five work-related deaths, down from seven in 2020. 

Nationally, transportation incidents were 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 New York City, 2021

Event	United States	New York City
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15.4	30.0
Falls, slips, trips	16.4	28.6
Violence and other injuries by persons or animals	14.7	24.3
Contact with objects and equipment	13.6	7.1
All other	40.0	10.0

The private construction industry sector had the highest number of fatal work injuries in New York City with 22, up from 13 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Falls, slips, or trips resulted in 12 of the 22 fatalities in the industry.

The second highest total among private industry sectors occurred in administrative and waste services, with seven fatal workplace injuries, up from four in the previous year.

Two sectors—retail trade and other services, except public administration—each had six work fatalities in 2021. For retail trade, the total number of fatalities decreased from seven in the previous year. The fatality count for other services was up from three in 2020.

The construction and extraction occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 20. (See table 3.) Transportation and material moving occupations had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with eight.

• Men accounted for 96 percent of the work-related fatalities in New York City, compared to their national share of 91 percent. (See table 4.)

• Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for 34 percent of New York City’s fatal injuries. Nationwide, this group accounted for 22 percent of work-related deaths.

• Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 67 percent of the city’s work-related fatalities in 2021, compared to 57 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.

• Of the 70 fatally injured workers in New York City, 84 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. Nationwide, 83 percent of occupational fatalities involved wage and salary workers. 

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 New York City government 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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