Fatal work injuries totaled 504 in 2022 for California, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that the number of work-related fatalities in California was up from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 657 in 1993 to a low of 326 in 2010. 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, California, 2013–22

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2013	396	339	57
2014	344	275	69
2015	388	329	59
2016	376	309	67
2017	376	301	75
2018	422	350	72
2019	451	351	100
2020	463	380	83
2021	462	379	83
2022	504	432	72

In California, transportation incidents resulted in 133 fatal work injuries. Exposure to harmful substances or environments accounted for 132 fatalities. These two major categories accounted for 53 percent of all fatal workplace injuries in the state. (See chart 2 and table 1.)

Worker deaths from transportation incidents were down from 142 over the year, and worker fatalities due to exposure to harmful substances or environments were up from 103.

Violence and other injuries by persons or animals were the third-most frequent fatal work event with 97 fatalities, up from 87 in the prior year. Falls, slips, and trips resulted in 79 work-related deaths compared to 78 in 2021.

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 both violence and other injuries by persons or animals and 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 California, 2022

Event	United States	California
Transportation incidents	38	26
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15	26
Violence and other injuries by persons or animals	16	19
Falls, slips, trips	16	16
All other	16	13

The private transportation and warehousing industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in California with 85, up from 58 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Transportation incidents resulted in 43 of the 85 fatalities in the industry. The general freight trucking industry group accounted for 44 of the 85 fatal workplace injuries in the transportation and warehousing industry.

The private construction industry sector had 75 fatal workplace injuries, down from 79 in the previous year. The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 42, or 56 percent, of the fatal injuries in this industry.

The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 132. (See table 3.) Motor vehicle operators accounted for 79 of the 132 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers. The construction and extraction occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 80. Construction trades workers suffered 61 of the work-related deaths within the construction and extraction group.

• Men accounted for 93 percent of the work-related fatalities in California, similar to the national share. (See table 4.) Transportation incidents and exposure to harmful substances or environments each made up 26 percent of the fatalities for men in California.

• Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for 50 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 23 percent of work-related deaths.

• Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 63 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2022, compared to 57 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.

• Of the 504 fatal work injuries in California, 86 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. The most frequent fatal events were exposure to harmful substances or environments, followed closely by transportation incidents; violence and other injuries by persons or animals and transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal events for self-employed 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 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 thanks the California Department of Industrial Relations 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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