Occupation Safety Ratings
33 occupations with occupation-specific BLS fatality and injury rates (2023)
Distribution within the 33-occupation measured cohort. The remaining 797 tracked occupations have only a broad SOC-group rate and are not assigned an occupation ranking here.
Top 10 Most Dangerous Occupations
Top 10 Safest Occupations
How Safety Grades Work
WageDex safety grades are a transparent derived index from named BLS sources - not an official BLS rating. Exact inputs, weights, and thresholds are below and on the methodology page.
Each occupation receives a safety grade (A through F) based on a danger index computed from two BLS data sources:
- Fatality rate (60% weight) - Deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI)
- Injury rate (40% weight) - Nonfatal injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII)
Both rates are normalized to a 0-100 scale, then combined into a single danger index. The grade thresholds are:
| Grade | Danger Index | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| A | 0 – 10 | Very Safe |
| B | 10 – 25 | Safe |
| C | 25 – 50 | Moderate Risk |
| D | 50 – 75 | Dangerous |
| F | 75 – 100 | Very Dangerous |
Ranking and grade-distribution surfaces use only occupations with a published occupation-specific BLS rate. Broad SOC major-group rates may appear as clearly labelled context on an individual occupation page, but they are not treated as that occupation's measured rate.