Fatal work injuries totaled 307 in 2022 for Florida, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Florida was down from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 422 in 2004 to a low of 218 in 2012. Nationwide, a total of 5,486 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2022, a 5.7-percent increase from 5,190 in 2021, 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, Florida, 2013–22

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2013	239	192	47
2014	228	185	43
2015	272	225	47
2016	309	263	46
2017	299	255	44
2018	332	294	38
2019	306	269	37
2020	275	234	41
2021	315	275	40
2022	307	277	30

In Florida, transportation incidents resulted in 102 fatal work injuries. Falls, slips, and trips accounted for 78 fatalities. These two major categories accounted for 59 percent of all fatal workplace injuries in the state. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Worker deaths from transportation incidents were down from 111 over the year, and worker fatalities due to falls, slips, and trips were up from 69.

Exposure to harmful substances or environments was the third-most frequent fatal work event with 53 fatalities, down from 59 in the prior year.

Nationally, transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal event in 2022, accounting for 38 percent of fatal work injuries. Falls, slips, and trips were the second-most common fatal event (16 percent), followed by violence and other injuries by persons or animals along with exposure to harmful substances or environments (15 percent each).

  

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Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and Florida, 2022

Event	United States	Florida
Transportation incidents	38	33
Falls, slips, trips	16	25
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15	17
All other	31	24

The private construction industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in Florida with 91, up from 76 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Falls, slips, and trips resulted in 46 of the 91 fatalities in the industry. The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 57, or 63 percent, of the 91 fatal workplace injuries in the construction industry.

The private transportation and warehousing industry sector had 49 fatal workplace injuries, equal to the previous year. The general freight trucking industry group accounted for 19, or 39 percent, of the fatal injuries in this industry.

The private administrative and support and waste management and remediation services industry sector had 46 fatal workplace injuries, down from 49 in the previous year. The landscaping services industry accounted for 22, or 48 percent, of these fatal injuries.

The construction and extraction occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 90. (See table 3.) Construction laborers accounted for 31 of the 90 fatalities among construction and extraction workers. The transportation and material moving occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 81. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers accounted for 43 of the occupational fatalities within this occupational group.

• Men accounted for 93 percent of the work-related fatalities in Florida, compared to the national share of 92 percent. (See table 4.) Transportation incidents made up 34 percent of the fatalities for men in Florida.
• White non-Hispanics accounted for 50 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 58 percent of work-related deaths.
• Workers 55-64 years old accounted for 25 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2022, compared to 21 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.
• Of the 307 fatal work injuries in Florida, 90 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. The most frequent fatal event for wage and salary workers and for self-employed workers was transportation incidents.

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 2022 national data, over 27,200 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 and the CFOI definitions.

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 Scope of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries: Concepts.

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 2022, there were 186 cases nationally where this occurred, and 157 of these latent cases occurred more than 30 days prior to the start of 2022. For more information on latent cases, see Understanding latency in fatal occupational injuries.

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 on the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, Compensation, Occupational Requirements, and Work Stoppages Statistics.

Acknowledgments. BLS 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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