Falls, Slips, and Trips
The construction industry accounts for nearly half of all falls, slips, and trips that occur in the United States. Falls, slips, and trips are one of the most common causes of injury in the construction industry, averaging over 360 fatalities a year annually since 2011. Examples of falls, slips, and trips include falls on same level and falls to a lower level. Falls, slips, and trips are a major source of fatal and severe injuries among construction workers and therefore must be continually monitored to assess trends and evaluate prevention efforts.
This interactive dashboard highlights fatal and nonfatal falls, slips, and trips in construction, including information by year, exposure type, major subsector, and detailed subsector. The dashboard-level filters, injury type and year, and the two chart-level filters, exposure type and major subsector, update the charts and the bolded and underlined key findings.
Beneath the interactive dashboard, you will find more information on the data source, definitions, chart notes, a downloadable data file, and a recommended citation. This interactive data dashboard corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming PDF version of the Construction Chart Book-7th edition, which will be published later this summer. Data will be updated annually or as available. If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected].
About the Data
Sarah Flood, Miriam King, Renae Rodgers, Steven Ruggles, J. Robert Warren, Daniel Backman, Etienne Breton, Grace Cooper, Julia A. Rivera Drew, Stephanie Richards, David Van Riper, and Kari C.W. Williams. IPUMS CPS: Version 13.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2025. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V13.0
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2011-2024 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (CFOI). www.bls.gov/iif/.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2011-2024 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). www.bls.gov/iif/.
Definitions and Chart Notes
Definitions
- Detailed subsector – 4-digit NAICS codes under each major subsector.
- Exposure type – Describes how the fall occurred based on the 3-digit event/exposure code.
- Falls, slips, and trips – Includes falls on the same level, falls and jumps to lower levels, falls and jumps that were curtailed by a personal arrest device, and slips and trips without a fall (OIICS code 4).
- Falls to a lower level – Includes falls where the injury was produced by impact of the person and another surface of lower elevation (OIICS code 43).
- Falls on same level – Includes falls where the injury was produced by the impact of the person and another surface without elevation (OIICS code 42).
- Major subsector – 3-digit NAICS codes within construction, including Construction of Buildings (NAICS 236), Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction (NAICS 237), and Specialty Trade Contractors (NAICS 238).
Chart Notes
- Nonfatal injury data includes only private industry construction workers while fatal injury data includes all construction workers.
- Fatal injury data goes through 2024 while nonfatal injury data goes through 2024.
- Fatal injury data uses annual estimates while nonfatal injury data uses biennial estimates.
- Falls, Slips, and Trips by Top Detailed Subsectors
- BLS updated their data disclosure policy which results in missing subsector data post-2019. Missing data does not necessarily indicate no injuries for the detailed subsector.