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).

  

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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.

• 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.

  

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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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

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