Silver Spring, MD — Workers at construction companies with 10 or fewer employees accounted for 42.4% of the industry’s deaths in 2022, according to a recent bulletin published by CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training.
Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, the bulletin also shows that workers at construction companies with 11 to 19 employees accounted for 8.1% of deaths in the industry that year.
Other findings:
- Fatal injuries at firms with 10 or fewer employees jumped 27.5% from 2011 to 2022, rising to 463 from 363. In that same period, all construction deaths increased nearly 40%.
- The nonfatal injury rate for construction employers with 10 or fewer employees was 0.8 per 100 full-time workers – twice that of establishments with 1,000-plus employees (0.4).
- In 2023, 2.7 million employees were at construction firms with fewer than 20 workers. They accounted for 91% of employees in the industry.
- That same year, around 2.9 million workers were self-employed or independent contractors – up from 2.4 million in 2014.
“As small establishments continue to compose a majority of construction payroll establishments, and the number of nonemployer establishments continue to grow, it is important to monitor employment and injury trends because these workers face disproportionally higher injury rates due to a lack of resources, lack of training programs and proper/safe equipment,” CPWR says.
“In addition, nonemployer establishments are not typically covered under OSHA protections.”
