Deadliest Jobs in America

The Deadliest Jobs In America, In One Graphic
by Jess Jiang
NPR News

Here's a look at the rate of work-related, on-the-job deaths in 2011 for U.S. workers. We included the three deadliest occupations, along with a handful of other jobs. (Here's the complete list, which comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)



The number of fishermen who die on the job has gone down by nearly half since 2009. But fishing is still the deadliest job in the U.S. Most fisherman who die on the job die from drowning, typically after their boat capsizes, according to Jill Janocha of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Related: Trying To Tame The (Real) Deadliest Fishing Jobs.)

Loggers who die on the job are most often hit by a falling tree or are killed by an out of control machine.

Farmers and ranchers are most often killed on the job in accidents in tractors and other vehicles.

Most pilots who die on the job are flying propeller-driven planes, according to Stephen Pegula of the BLS. So the typical pilot killed in the line of duty is someone flying a crop duster, not a commercial jet.

Firefighters are less likely to die on the job than the average U.S. worker. That may be because we're seeing fewer structure fires and more firefighters are wearing their seat belts, according to the National Fire Protection Agency. Over a third of firefighter deaths from 2011 were due to fires or explosions, but another quarter were because of transportation accidents.

Cashiers rarely die from job-related causes. But when they do, it's almost always due to homicide.

Business and finance staff are among the least likely to die on the job. Nearly half of those who did died from transportation accidents.

Someone in the comment section used the method employed above to determine the death rate amongst members of the US military. Here is their post:

Jens Odegaard:
According to https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/... there were 1,485 total deaths out of 1,685,178 total military personnel (full-time equivalents) in 2010 (latest available). That's a death rate of 88.1 per 100,000.

Thus according to the data, its safer to be in the military than to be a logger or fisherman.

Am originally from a fishing village over here, and most of the fishermen I know never bother to learn how to swim. The way they look at it, they're miles out in the atlantic, and if they go overboard in a storm etc the boat will probably never be able to get back to them in time, so knowing how to swim is just prolonging the inevitable.

I would actually believe this. After being in the Navy myself as well as watching Deadliest Catch on tv (and Ax men), it doesnt surprise me in the least that fishing and logging are at the top of the list. Man, some of the stuff fishermen go through is scary. And logging...I watch what these guys do on tv and I might could have done that for a little while when I was a young man...but I doubt it.

Dennis324 wrote:I would actually believe this. After being in the Navy myself as well as watching Deadliest Catch on tv (and Ax men), it doesnt surprise me in the least that fishing and logging are at the top of the list. Man, some of the stuff fishermen go through is scary. And logging...I watch what these guys do on tv and I might could have done that for a little while when I was a young man...but I doubt it.

Most of the stuff you see on Ax Men is illegal (OSHA) and would loose your company its contract in the blink of an eye. That said, when done right its still dangerous and frankly, have you seen some of the real life loggers?

Not like the loggers on that show. Alabama used to have a lot of old growth trees and logging is still prevelant here. But the trees here arent nearly as large at the ones out west. And Rygard probably wouldnt even look at logging here.

But what are they doing on that show that is illegal? (Other than fighting every episode or stealing logs from one another in Florida and Louisiana)?

My favorite on the show is Shelby Stanga! Lol! But he's a little wreckless.

Dennis324 wrote:Not like the loggers on that show. Alabama used to have a lot of old growth trees and logging is still prevelant here. But the trees here arent nearly as large at the ones out west. And Rygard probably wouldnt even look at logging here.

But what are they doing on that show that is illegal? (Other than fighting every episode or stealing logs from one another in Florida and Louisiana)?

My favorite on the show is Shelby Stanga! Lol! But he's a little wreckless.

From what I've seen of it many of the operations are not very professional (by logger standards) and appear to have very little regard for safety.

Bryant wrote:

Dennis324 wrote:Not like the loggers on that show. Alabama used to have a lot of old growth trees and logging is still prevelant here. But the trees here arent nearly as large at the ones out west. And Rygard probably wouldnt even look at logging here.

But what are they doing on that show that is illegal? (Other than fighting every episode or stealing logs from one another in Florida and Louisiana)?

My favorite on the show is Shelby Stanga! Lol! But he's a little wreckless.

From what I've seen of it many of the operations are not very professional (by logger standards) and appear to have very little regard for safety.

I've only seen bits and pieces of the show, but what I did see made a mockery of "stop work authority". Any worker on a job site has the right to stop the job if they deem it unsafe. This right falls under the right to protect one's self from harm and is protected by OSHA.

Marconius wrote:
I've only seen bits and pieces of the show, but what I did see made a mockery of "stop work authority". Any worker on a job site has the right to stop the job if they deem it unsafe. This right falls under the right to protect one's self from harm and is protected by OSHA.

But if they did that, then it'd make for a nice safe unexciting work environment, which would make for bad TV. The "reality" on those "reality" TV shows is generally tweaked somewhat so as to not bore the viewers. Is like a few weeks ago, I read that one of the guys form Storage Wars (Dave Hester?) quot the show (or was fired, depending on who you believe), and afterwards he claimed that the show's producers were "seeding" the lockers with more interesting stuff to keep the viewers tuning in.

Funny thing is, over here we get all these kinds of shows (Ax Men, Storage Wars, Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People etc) on the History Channel. Still have to figure out what any of them have to do with history though....

Miles1 wrote:

But if they did that, then it'd make for a nice safe unexciting work environment, which would make for bad TV. The "reality" on those "reality" TV shows is generally tweaked somewhat so as to not bore the viewers. Is like a few weeks ago, I read that one of the guys form Storage Wars (Dave Hester?) quot the show (or was fired, depending on who you believe), and afterwards he claimed that the show's producers were "seeding" the lockers with more interesting stuff to keep the viewers tuning in.

Funny thing is, over here we get all these kinds of shows (Ax Men, Storage Wars, Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People etc) on the History Channel. Still have to figure out what any of them have to do with history.

Yeah, one would have to be really naive to believe these shows are real. Of course their popularity tells a lot about the mentality of my fellow humans. I talked to many in Cali who believe the south is accurately portrayed in those shows.

What I really wanna know is what the producers of those shows are gonna do when their actions kill someone. There wouls be hard video evidence of the disregard for Federal safety regs.

Bryant wrote:

Dennis324 wrote:Not like the loggers on that show. Alabama used to have a lot of old growth trees and logging is still prevelant here. But the trees here arent nearly as large at the ones out west. And Rygard probably wouldnt even look at logging here.

But what are they doing on that show that is illegal? (Other than fighting every episode or stealing logs from one another in Florida and Louisiana)?

My favorite on the show is Shelby Stanga! Lol! But he's a little wreckless.

From what I've seen of it many of the operations are not very professional (by logger standards) and appear to have very little regard for safety.

Yeah. I think some of the stuff they do are simply for the camera. Otoh logging is tough, dangerous work. They are still using chain saws and working in awfully hot weather.

Marconius wrote:

Miles1 wrote:

But if they did that, then it'd make for a nice safe unexciting work environment, which would make for bad TV. The "reality" on those "reality" TV shows is generally tweaked somewhat so as to not bore the viewers. Is like a few weeks ago, I read that one of the guys form Storage Wars (Dave Hester?) quot the show (or was fired, depending on who you believe), and afterwards he claimed that the show's producers were "seeding" the lockers with more interesting stuff to keep the viewers tuning in.

Funny thing is, over here we get all these kinds of shows (Ax Men, Storage Wars, Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People etc) on the History Channel. Still have to figure out what any of them have to do with history.

Yeah, one would have to be really naive to believe these shows are real. Of course their popularity tells a lot about the mentality of my fellow humans. I talked to many in Cali who believe the south is accurately portrayed in those shows.

What I really wanna know is what the producers of those shows are gonna do when their actions kill someone. There wouls be hard video evidence of the disregard for Federal safety regs.

You mean you guys don't run around like the dude from Gator Boy?

Bryant wrote:


You mean you guys don't run around like the dude from Gator Boy?

I hate to say, some actually do. Swamp People can be fairly accurate. Same with the Red Jacket guys.