Fatal work injuries totaled 177 in 2023 for New York State (except 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 (except NYC) was up from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 226 in 2017 to a low of 114 in 2010. Nationwide, a total of 5,283 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2023, a 3.7-percent decrease from 5,486 in 2022. These data are from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).

  

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Chart 1. Number of fatal occupational injuries by employee status, New York State (except NYC), 2014–23

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2014	162	112	50
2015	162	109	53
2016	216	161	55
2017	226	175	51
2018	198	145	53
2019	182	129	53
2020	164	130	34
2021	177	127	50
2022	168	130	38
2023	177	135	42
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Transportation incidents (62) were the most frequent type of fatal event in New York (except NYC), accounting for 35 percent of all fatal work injuries. Transportation incidents also accounted for the greatest share of fatal events in the United States (37 percent). (See chart 2 and table 1.)

• Falls, slips, and trips (35) accounted for 20 percent of workplace fatalities in New York (except NYC); nationally the share was 17 percent.

  

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Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and New York State (except NYC), 2023

Event	United States	New York State (except NYC)
Transportation incidents	37	35
Falls, slips, trips	17	20
Exposure to harmful substances, environments	16	17
Contact incidents	15	15
All other	16	13
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 36. (See table 2.)

• Of the 36 construction fatalities, 16 were the result of falls, slips, and trips.

• The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 24 of the sector’s fatal workplace injuries.

• Construction and extraction occupations had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 44. (See table 3.)

• Falls, trips, and slips resulted in 15 of the construction and extraction fatalities.

• Construction trades workers accounted for 39 of the major group’s fatal workplace injuries.

• Wage and salary workers accounted for 76 percent of workplace fatalities in New York (except NYC); the self-employed comprised the remaining 24 percent. Nationally, wage and salary workers comprised 83 percent of fatalities. (See chart 1 and table 4.)

• Males accounted for 89 percent of the fatal work injuries in New York (except NYC) and 91 percent nationally.

• Workers 45 to 54 years old had the largest share (24 percent) of New York (except NYC) fatal work injuries. Nationally, this group’s share was 20 percent.

• White, non-Hispanic workers had the largest share (65 percent) of fatal workplace injuries in New York (except NYC). This group was involved in 56 percent of all work fatalities for the nation. Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for 20 percent of workplace-related fatal injuries in New York (except NYC).

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 York State 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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