Fatal Work Injuries in New York City — 2023

Fatal work injuries totaled 69 in 2023 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 down 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 5,283 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).

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Number of fatal occupational injuries by employee status, New York City, 2014–23
Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
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
2022	83	78	5
2023	69	63	6
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Fatal event or exposure

Falls, slips, and trips (19) and exposure to harmful substances or environments (19) tied for the most frequent type of fatal event in New York City, each accounting for 28 percent of all fatal work injuries in the city. Nationally the shares were 17 percent and 16 percent, respectively. (See chart 2 and table 1.)
Transportation incidents (13) accounted for 19 percent of New York City workplace fatalities; nationally the share was 37 percent.

Clustered column chart of percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and New York City, 2023. Accessible version is available in View Chart Data link below the chart.

View Chart Data

Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and New York City, 2023
Event	United States	New York City
Falls, slips, trips	17	28
Exposure to harmful substances, environments	16	28
Transportation incidents	37	19
Violent acts	14	17
All other	17	9
Note: Percents may not add to total due to rounding. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Private Industry

The construction sector had the highest number of fatalities with 24. (See table 2.)
Falls, slips, and trips resulted in 12 of the 24 construction sector fatalities.
The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 10 of the sector’s fatal workplace injuries.

Occupation

The construction and extraction occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 30. (See table 3.)
Falls, slips, and trips resulted in 14 of the construction and extraction fatalities.
Constructions trades workers accounted for 22 of the major group’s fatal workplace injuries.

Worker characteristics

Wage and salary workers accounted for 91 percent of workplace fatalities in New York City; the self-employed comprised the remaining 9 percent. (See chart 1 and table 4.) Nationally, wage and salary workers comprised 83 percent of fatalities.
Males accounted for 90 percent of the work-related fatalities in New York City, compared to 91 percent nationally.
Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 45 percent of the city’s work-related fatalities, compared to 57 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally. Workers 55-64 years old accounted for 39 percent of the city’s work-related fatalities in 2023, compared to 21 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.
Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for 41 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 24 percent of work-related deaths.

Revision of Classification Systems

The 2022 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the updated Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS) were implemented with the release of 2023 data. As a result of these changes, comparisons between 2023 CFOI data and previous years should be made with caution. Refer to the national release technical note for more information.

Technical Note

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 NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 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.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Fatal occupational injuries by event or exposure, New York City, 2023
Event or Exposure (1)	Number	Percent (%)
All events and exposures	69	100
Violent acts	12	17
Homicides (violent acts by other person)	5	7
Shooting by other person	3	4
Suicides (intentional self-harm)	7	10
Intentional self-harm-- jump from building, structure	3	4
Transportation incidents	13	19
Falls, slips, trips	19	28
Exposure to harmful substances, environments	19	28
Exposure to harmful substances	16	23
Drug, alcohol overdose	16	23
Footnotes: (1) Based on the BLS Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS) 3.02 implemented for 2023 data forward.
NOTE: Data for all years are revised and final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event.

Table 2. Fatal occupational injuries by industry, New York City, 2023
Industry	Number	Percentage (%)
Total	69	100
Private industry (1)	61	88
Natural resources and mining	--	--
Construction	24	35
Construction	24	35
Construction of buildings	7	10
Nonresidential building construction	3	4
Heavy and civil engineering construction	2	3
Highway, street, and bridge construction	2	3
Highway, street, and bridge construction	2	3
Specialty trade contractors	10	14
Building equipment contractors	4	6
Manufacturing	--	--
Trade, transportation, and utilities	--	--
Retail trade	7	10
Food and beverage retailers	4	6
Grocery and convenience retailers	4	6
Transportation and warehousing	7	10
Information	--	--
Financial activities	--	--
Professional and business services	6	9
Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services	6	9
Educational and health services	--	--
Health care and social assistance	3	4
Leisure and hospitality	--	--
Other services (except public administration)	4	6
Other services (except public administration)	4	6
Government (2)	8	12
Federal government	--	--
State government	--	--
Local government	7	10
Footnotes: (1) CFOI has used several versions of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) since 2003 to define industry. For complete information on the version of NAICS used in this year, see our concepts page at https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/concepts.htm#industry. (2) Includes fatal injuries to workers employed by governmental organizations regardless of industry. Cases classified as foreign government and other government are included in all government counts, but not displayed separately.
NOTE: Data for all years are revised and final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event.

Table 3. Fatal occupational injuries by occupation, New York City, 2023
Occupation (1)	Number	Percentage (%)
All occupations	69	100
Management occupations	3	4
Food preparation and serving related occupations	3	4
Sales and related occupations	3	4
Construction and extraction occupations	30	43
Construction trades workers	22	32
Carpenters	3	4
Carpenters	3	4
Construction laborers	14	20
Construction laborers	14	20
Electricians	3	4
Electricians	3	4
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations	3	4
Transportation and material moving occupations	9	13
Motor vehicle operators	4	6
Footnotes: (1) Occupational data are based on the 2018 Standard Occupation Classification (SOC). Cases where occupation is unknown are included in the total.
NOTE: Data for all years are revised and final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event.

Table 4. Fatal occupational injuries by selected demographic characteristics, New York City, 2023
Demographic	Number	Percentage (%)
Total	69	100
Employee status
Wage and salary workers (1)	63	91
Self-employed (2)	6	9
Sex
Male	62	90
Female	7	10
Age (3)
25 to 34 years	8	12
35 to 44 years	10	14
45 to 54 years	13	19
55 to 64 years	27	39
65 years and over	5	7
Race or ethnic origin (4)
White, non-Hispanic	14	20
Black or African-American, non-Hispanic	17	25
Hispanic or Latino	28	41
Footnotes: (1) May include volunteers and workers receiving other types of compensation. Cases where employment status is unknown are included in the counts of wage and salary workers. (2) Includes self-employed workers, owners of unincorporated businesses and farms, paid and unpaid family workers, and may include some owners of incorporated businesses or members of partnerships. (3) Information may not be available for all age groups. (4) Persons identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. The race categories shown exclude data for Hispanics and Latinos. Cases where ethnicity is unknown are included in counts of non-Hispanic workers.
NOTE: Data for all years are revised and final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event.

Last Modified Date: Friday, February 28, 2025

Northeast Information Office

Fatal Work Injuries in New York City — 2023