Politics

North Dakota Has the Highest Rate Of Workplace Death in the U.S.

A report from the AFL-CIO highlights the deaths caused by oil work.

By Eric Garcia and National Journal

North Dakotans and Latinos are two groups with a higher likelihood of dying in the workplace than other American workers, according to a study by the AFL-CIO that tracks workplace fatalities in the United States.

The study found that North Dakota had the highest workplace fatality rate of any state for the third year in a row, with 14.9 deaths per 100,000 workers.

North Dakota had seen its workplace fatality rate and the number of workplace deaths more than double since 2007, according to the report.

(RELATED: Death, Drugs, and Crime in the Oil Patch)

The perils of energy-sector jobs show the mixed blessing that the state's energy boom has brought. In 2014, North Dakota created jobs faster than any other state. But the death rate there is higher in the oil and gas extraction sector, which has 84.7 deaths per 100,000 workers in the state, seven times the national fatality rate in the industry.

In 2013, North Dakota had 55 fatal workplace injuries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While that may seem like a small number, it's significant, considering that North Dakota has a population of slightly less than 724,000, according to 2013 Census numbers.

On-the-job hazards aren't the only problem that the state's oil workers are facing. As oil prices have dropped, some of them have seen the hours they work decline.

(RELATED: Inside North Dakota's Great Fracking Boom Towns)

Workplace fatalities nationwide are most pronounced among Latino workers. In 2013, the states where Latinos had the highest deaths were California with 194 deaths, Texas with 192, and Florida with 68 deaths, according to the report.

Latinos also face a higher rate of workplace-related deaths than other groups in the U.S., having a job fatality rate 18 percent greater than the rate for all workers. In 2013, 817 Latinos died on the job for a rate of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 workers, up from 748 deaths and a death rate of 3.7 in 2012. But this is a decrease from the peak Latino workplace death rate of 6.0 in 2001.

The AFL-CIO report found that the surge in workplace-related deaths for Latinos was for grounds maintenance workers, with 33 tree trimmers and pruners dying since 2012 and 71 deaths related to landscaping among Latinos reported. Moreover, 60 of those landscaping deaths were of immigrants. According to the study, 66 percent of fatalities for Latinos were workers born outside the U.S.