NYCOSH Report Reveals Alarming Trend as NYC Construction Deaths Continue to Spiral Upwards

This week, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) released its annual construction fatality report, “Deadly Skyline: An Annual Report on Construction Fatalities in New York State.” The report, which analyzes newly available data for the 2019 calendar year, found that construction fatalities in New York City increased for the third year in a row. Construction deaths in New York City account for a much higher percentage of overall worker deaths than the rest of the country. In 2019, construction deaths accounted for 26 percent of all worker deaths in New York City, compared to 19 percent nationwide. Construction fatalities in New York State decreased for the third year in a row in 2019. Despite this decrease, the percentage of construction fatalities among all worker deaths were still slightly higher for the entire state than the nationwide average.

In general, working conditions across industries are much more dangerous for Latinx workers. While an estimated 10% of New York State’s workers are Latinx, in 2019, 20.5% of workers who died on the job were Latinx.

“Construction workers put their lives on the line every day to build our homes, hospitals, schools and offices. Seeing a trend of rising fatalities in New York City is particularly alarming, and it’s time lawmakers commit to defending and expanding safety rules and regulations to ensure that bad actors are held accountable and workers can return home to their families at the end of the shift,” said Charlene Obernauer, NYCOSH Executive Director. Read more here and find coverage in the Daily News here.