Fatal work injuries totaled 29 in 2023 for Alaska, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Alaska was up from 20 the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 91 in 1992 to a low of 14 in 2015. 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, Alaska, 2014–23

Year	Total
2014	30
2015	14
2016	35
2017	33
2018	32
2019	51
2020	31
2021	20
2022	20
2023	29
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Transportation incidents (18) were the most frequent type of fatal event in Alaska, accounting for 62 percent of all fatal work injuries in the state. Nationally the share was 37 percent. (See chart 2 and table 1.)

• Violent acts (4) and contact incidents (3) accounted for 14 and 10 percent of Alaska workplace fatalities, respectively; nationally the corresponding shares were 14 and 15 percent.

  

  View Chart Data

  Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and Alaska, 2023

  Event	United States	Alaska
  Transportation incidents	37	62
  Violent acts	14	14
  Contact incidents	15	10
  All other	34	14
  Note: Percents may not add to total due to rounding. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and Alaska, 2023

  Event	United States	Alaska
  Transportation incidents	37	62
  Violent acts	14	14
  Contact incidents	15	10
  All other	34	14
  Note: Percents may not add to total due to rounding. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• The transportation and warehousing sector had six fatalities. (See table 2.)

• Transportation incidents resulted in 5 of the 6 transportation and warehousing sector fatalities.

• The air transportation subsector accounted for four of the sector’s fatal workplace injuries.

• The transportation and material moving occupational group had 10 fatal workplace injuries. (See table 3.)

• Transportation incidents resulted in seven of the transportation and material moving fatalities.

• Commercial pilots accounted for four of the major group’s fatal workplace injuries.

• White non-Hispanics accounted for 76 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. (See chart 1 and table 4.)

• Wage and salary workers accounted for 79 percent of workplace fatalities in Alaska; the self-employed comprised the remaining 21 percent. Nationally, wage and salary workers comprised 83 percent of fatalities.

• Males accounted for 90 percent of the work-related fatalities in Alaska; nationally, they accounted for 91 percent of fatalities.

• Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 69 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities, compared to 57 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally. In the group of workers 25-54 years old, the subset of workers 25-34 years old accounted for 38 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2023, compared to 17 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.

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 Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development 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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