Fatal Injuries Among Contracted Workers in the U.S. Construction Industry

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dong, Xiuwen S.
• Description:
  Background: Contractors and subcontractors are common in the current economy, especially in the construction industry. To understand the complex employment relations and risks faced by contracted workers, this presentation analyzes fatal injuries among contracted workers in construction using data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Methods: BLS has collected data on contracted workers in the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries since 2011. A contracted worker is "employed by one firm but working for another firm that is responsible for the operations at the site". Deaths among contracted workers were analyzed by contracting industry and direct employer industry. Denominators were estimated from the Current Employment Statistics and Current Population Survey. Death numbers and rates were stratified by construction subsectors, occupations, and demographics. Chi-square tests were applied to examine whether differences were statistically significant among subgroups. SAS version 9.4 was used for data analyses. Results: In 2016, 503 workers directly employed in the construction industry died when they were working for other construction firms or non-construction (e.g., manufacturing) firms, accounting for 63% of the contracted worker fatalities in all industries. The number of contracted worker deaths has increased steadily since 2011. Between 2011 and 2016, a total of 2,555 construction workers died when they were contracted; a quarter of such deaths occurred to construction laborers. By construction subsector, Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction had higher contracted worker deaths than any other subsector (p<.01). In addition, about 43% of contracted construction workers died from falls. (Numbers will be updated to 2017 data) Conclusion/Discussion: Construction is the largest employer industry as well as contracting industry for fatally injured contracted workers. To reduce such tragedies, workplace interventions should be enhanced, and both the contracting employer and direct employer should be jointly responsible for worker safety and health. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Construction Industry Epidemiology Mortality Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Occupational Health And Safety Construction Industry Construction Workers Falls Fatalities Injuries Injury Prevention Mortality Data Road Construction Surveillance
• Publisher:
  American Public Health Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062941
• Citation:
  Creating the Healthiest Nation: For science. For action. For health. APHA 147th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 2-6, 2019, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association, 2019 Nov; :450530
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  Creating the Healthiest Nation: For science. For action. For health. APHA 147th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 2-6, 2019, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• End Date:
  20240831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:43ca5c1519e6740eedf6d7378da25569e758d5d2fc0477dfd54cd4be02d0d733ab6707c10a99a5778ffced0b69e480572fb52271bc9bb20fda82c4ab6aa14b2c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226104/cdc_226104_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 458.46 KB ]