The Department of Labor just released figures on the most dangerous jobs in the United States, which are the occupations that have the highest number of deaths per 100,000 workers. You might be surprised to learn who puts their lives on the line so that you are able to live in safety and comfort.
Many Americans mistakenly believe police are the workers who “risk their lives everyday,” and that they “don’t know if they are coming home to their families at night.” Others believe firefighters have the most dangerous job.
But contrary to popular opinion — which no doubt is propagated by Hollywood images of firemen storming into burning homes to save children or heroic cops who save the day — neither of these occupations even break the top 10 list. In fact, roughly 90 percent of occupational fatalities happen to people who are not on government payrolls.
Interestingly enough, more than half of the top 10 most dangerous jobs are in occupations that provide us our basic needs.
Basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter are so essential for survival that we cannot live without them.
Some psychologists, such as the famed Abraham Maslow, go so far as to say we will not pursue higher needs — love, self-esteem, acceptance and so forth — until these basic physiological and security needs are met. Regardless of whether Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is accurate, after examining the Department of Labor’s data, one thing remains clear: The people who fulfill these needs risk their lives to provide them.
Workers who put food on our tables have dangerous jobs. Once again, the title for the most dangerous job in America goes to fishing, with farming and ranching coming in third place.
Even though most of us would be dead in a matter of weeks without food, it is very unlikely that people are going to exchange the ribbon on their car for a new one that reads, “support the fishers” or “support the farmers.” Though it would be nice if people were thankful and threw a prayer or two their way for once.
Four of the most dangerous jobs are held by those involved in sheltering us from the elements. Loggers came in second place, iron and steel workers fourth, roofers fifth and construction laborers 10th.
A version of this article appeared in the Apr 1 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Interesting column. It reminds me of a blog post I read last year from this guy in Las Vegas who was complaining about the police there (it was over the cops who shot that West Point grad at the Costco and "lost" the store footage). Anyways, he made the point that cops don't have dangerous jobs, which I did not realize. I will try to find his blog post because it was very interesting.
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Found it. "Neon Police State:"
http://www.casinotop10.net/neon-police-state-part1.shtml
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Great article, but I wouldn't necessarily make the jump that deaths per 100,000 is the perfect description of dangerous. I'm not discounting the jobs that those people do, because I appreciate it very much, but using the fact that police/fire/etc. are not in the top 10 as a basis for saying they aren't dangerous is a little ignorant. The top ten jobs are dangerous because of the number of accidents that happen. Police/Fire are jobs where those are intentionally putting theirselves in harm's way, often for the direct protection of someone else.
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Actually, I Googled "most dangerous jobs," to see if this article was correct (which it is). I think they calculate most dangerous as deaths, not workplace accidents. At least, the mainstream media does anyway.
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But I would be curious to know how many cops die per year on the job. I bet it is not that much at all. I bet that most police deaths are not even from getting shot or killed by criminals, either. Most are probably from car wrecks or killing themselves (shooting accidents, flash grenade accidents, ect).
Of course if troops were included in the figures they would be #1 by far. But that is another matter altogether because half the country thinks they are dying to protects us, and the other half thinks they are dying for nothings. Whereas 99% of us would agree that a firemen dying on the job is dying to protect us.
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I agree. I was referring to accidental deaths. I'm saying a policeman getting killed on the job is not an "accidental" death. My point is that police/fire etc. are inherently dangerous jobs for several reasons. We also have to remember that "police" is a much broader term than, say, "logger".
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You miss the point I think.
The point is not how many die, but a percentage. If it was listed by number of deaths the list would be different but wouldn't tell the whole story.
If there are 20 fishermen working every year and 10 die that is a 50% chance of on the job death.
If there are 10000 police officers every year and 100 die that is a 1% chance of on the job death.
So the point of these hypothetical numbers is to show you that while 10 times the amount of cops may die each year, it doesn't mean the job is more dangerous because if the numbers were equal it would look like this.
10000 Fisherman at 50% equals 5000 dead
or
20 police at 1% equals 0.2 dead.
So the fishermen have the more dangerous job because they have a higher chance of death.
I hope this helps.
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A summary of the comments so far:
My job is more dangerous than your job...
Nuh uhhh...
Yuh huh...
Well you're not counting the right way...
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I saw Hurt's column yesterday on spending, and a month or two ago a few columns on Obama. I liked yours the best when the paper did an election page last year. You haven't done politics since then. Please write another one on politics because I want to see what your take is on politicians or the spending.
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