Workplace injury statistics measure different parts of the problem: employer-reported recordable cases, cases involving time away or job restrictions, and fatal injuries counted through a national census. In the United States, private-industry employers reported 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2024, while the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries recorded 5,070 fatal work injuries.
Contents
- Overall scale of nonfatal injuries and illnesses
- Fatal workplace injuries and recent trends
- Time away, restrictions, and measured outcomes
- How workplace injuries occur
- Differences by industry
- Worker groups and occupational risk
Overall scale of nonfatal injuries and illnesses
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported an estimated 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses among U.S. private-industry employers in 2024. That total was 3.1% lower than the 2023 total. The estimate comes from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), an employer-reported survey based on OSHA recordkeeping; it excludes cases outside the survey scope and is not a census of every injury.
The total-recordable-case rate was 2.3 cases per 100 full-time-equivalent (FTE) workers in 2024. Looking only at injuries, the private-industry rate was 2.2 cases per 100 FTE workers. These are incidence rates for OSHA-recordable employer-reported cases, so they should not be read as the share of workers injured.
Illnesses are reported separately from injuries. Private-industry illness cases fell to 148,000 in 2024, a 26.0% decrease from 2023. The illness rate was 13.9 cases per 10,000 FTE workers. Respiratory illness cases fell 46.1% to 54,000, with a rate of 5.1 cases per 10,000 FTE workers. Those respiratory figures describe one illness category rather than all workplace injuries.
The same release shows how rates can differ by sector. In 2024, the information sector had a total-recordable-case rate of 0.7 per 100 FTE workers, while health care and social assistance had a rate of 3.4. Both figures combine recordable injuries and illnesses, so they are not injury-only comparisons.
Source: Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses – 2023-2024, BLS.
Fatal workplace injuries and recent trends
The United States recorded 5,070 fatal work injuries in 2024, according to the final 2024 CFOI summary. The count was 4.0% below the 2023 total of 5,283. The fatal work injury rate declined from 3.5 to 3.3 fatalities per 100,000 FTE workers between 2023 and 2024.
BLS also summarizes the annual count as one worker dying every 104 minutes from a work-related injury in 2024. This is a summary interval derived from the annual CFOI count, not an individual worker risk estimate. CFOI counts fatal occupational injuries and excludes illness-related deaths unless an injury event precipitated the death.
Several fatal categories changed between 2023 and 2024. Fatalities from harmful substances or environments fell 16.2%, from 820 to 687. Drug or alcohol overdoses accounted for 410 fatal work injuries in 2024, down from 512 in 2023. Transportation and material-moving occupations recorded 1,391 fatal work injuries in 2024, down 7.0% from 1,495 in 2023. Occupation groups are not the same classification as industries.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Fatal work injuries | 5,283 | 5,070 |
| Fatal work injury rate | 3.5 per 100,000 FTE | 3.3 per 100,000 FTE |
| Harmful substances or environments | 820 | 687 |
| Drug or alcohol overdoses | 512 | 410 |
Source: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2024, BLS.
Time away, restrictions, and measured outcomes
The biennial SOII series for 2023–2024 estimated 1.8 million private-industry cases involving days away from work (DAFW). DAFW cases represented 61.5% of private-industry DART cases, where DART combines DAFW with cases involving only days of job transfer or restriction. The annualized DAFW incidence rate was 86.6 cases per 10,000 FTE workers.
The median time away from work was 8 days for private-industry DAFW cases. Because this is a median, it is not an average and does not represent a total of lost workdays. It describes the midpoint duration among the covered cases.
Private industry also had 1.1 million cases involving days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR) in 2023–2024. DJTR cases represented 38.5% of DART cases, and the annualized DJTR incidence rate was 54.2 cases per 10,000 FTE workers. The median duration of job transfer or restriction was 15 days. BLS defines DJTR here as cases involving job transfer or restriction; the statistic does not by itself establish a return to work or a transfer to another job.
| Outcome measure | 2023–2024 estimate |
|---|---|
| DAFW cases | 1.8 million |
| DAFW share of DART | 61.5% |
| Annualized DAFW rate | 86.6 per 10,000 FTE workers |
| Median DAFW duration | 8 days |
| DJTR cases | 1.1 million |
| DJTR share of DART | 38.5% |
| Annualized DJTR rate | 54.2 per 10,000 FTE workers |
| Median DJTR duration | 15 days |
The 2023–2024 case and demographic series used an updated OIICS classification, creating a series break for those data. The rates are biennial estimates annualized by BLS, and the case categories should not be added to create a broader injury total.
Source: Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses – 2023-2024, BLS.
How workplace injuries occur
For private industry in 2023–2024, overexertion, repetitive motion, and bodily conditions accounted for 946,290 DART cases. Contact incidents accounted for 860,050 DART cases. Exposure to harmful substances or environments produced 224,450 DART cases. These are event or exposure estimates from the biennial SOII series and cover cases involving days away, job transfer, or restriction.
Among harmful-substance-or-environment DART cases, 196,540, or 87.6%, involved at least one day away from work. BLS reports that percentage for the event category; it is not a general causal measure of severity for all workplace injuries.
Fatal event statistics describe a different population and measurement system. Transportation incidents accounted for 38.2% of all U.S. occupational fatalities in 2024, with 1,937 fatal transportation incidents. Within that category, roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles caused 1,146 fatal work injuries, and pedestrian incidents involving motorized land vehicles caused 369.
Fatal falls, slips, and trips totaled 844 in 2024, down from 885 in 2023. Falls from heights over 30 feet represented 10.8% of fatal falls, slips, and trips in 2024. Violent acts caused 733 fatal work injuries, including 470 homicides and 263 suicides. Fatal shooting-by-other-person incidents increased from 373 in 2023 to 379 in 2024.
Source: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2024 and Table 2. Fatal occupational injuries for selected events or exposures, 2023-24, BLS.
Differences by industry
The 2023 SOII industry table reported a total-recordable-case rate of 2.7 per 100 FTE workers for all industries, including private, state, and local government. Private industry alone had a rate of 2.4. These rates include both injuries and illnesses, and they are rounded employer-reported incidence rates.
| Industry or sector | 2023 total-recordable-case rate |
|---|---|
| All industries | 2.7 per 100 FTE workers |
| Private industry | 2.4 per 100 FTE workers |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting | 4.2 per 100 FTE workers |
| Hog and pig farming | 8.7 per 100 FTE workers |
| Construction | 2.3 per 100 FTE workers |
| Hospitals | 5.2 per 100 FTE workers |
| Nursing and residential care facilities | 6.4 per 100 FTE workers |
| Warehousing and storage | 4.7 per 100 FTE workers |
| Information | 1.0 per 100 FTE workers |
| Finance and insurance | 0.3 per 100 FTE workers |
The agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting estimate has an important scope limitation: SOII excludes farms with fewer than 11 employees. The industry labels also follow NAICS definitions and table footnotes, so rates should be compared only with attention to the published coverage.
Source: TABLE 1. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry and case types, 2023, BLS.
Worker groups and occupational risk
The 2024 CFOI data include worker characteristics as well as totals. Black or African American workers experienced 624 fatal work injuries, with a fatal work injury rate of 3.4 per 100,000 FTE workers. Hispanic or Latino workers had a rate of 4.3 per 100,000 FTE workers and 1,229 fatal work injuries. Foreign-born Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for 842 of those fatalities, or 68.5% of the Hispanic or Latino total.
Women accounted for 413 fatal work injuries, or 8.1% of all worker fatalities. They accounted for 72 homicide fatalities, or 15.3% of all worker homicide fatalities. These percentages use different denominators and should not be compared as equivalent measures.
Occupation-specific counts show another dimension of risk. Construction and extraction occupations experienced 1,032 fatal work injuries in 2024. Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations had 356. Protective-service occupations had 281, including 97 homicides. These are occupation-group counts, not industry rates or worker-level probabilities.
Across the datasets, the definitions matter: SOII estimates are employer-reported and based on recordkeeping, while CFOI is a census of fatal injury events. SOII rates are rounded, the 2023–2024 case series has an OIICS classification break, and CFOI event counts are final and revised. The 2024 SOII release also used preliminary fourth-quarter MSHA data for mining estimates.
Source: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2024, BLS.