The Short Version: BLS does not print a single “maintenance worker” fatality total. The nearest printed major group is installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (SOC 49-0000), which recorded 437 fatal work injuries in 2024 at a rate of 8.9 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, against 3.3 for all civilian workers.
Individual maintenance jobs sit inside that group. General maintenance and repair workers logged 76 fatalities, HVAC mechanics 33, industrial machinery mechanics 17, millwrights 5, and electrical power-line installers 21. Those detailed occupations are mutually exclusive, so 76, 33, 17, 5, and 21 can be added as a partial subtotal of SOC 49. Double-counting is adding a parent aggregate to its child rows, or adding that subtotal again to the 437.
Nonfatal injury and illness rates come from a different survey (SOII) in a different unit, per 100 FTE, so they cannot be pasted next to a fatality count as one series. The private-industry total recordable case rate is injuries and illnesses (2.3 per 100 FTE in 2024); the injury-only rate is 2.2. For process work rather than injury math, see How to Start a PdM Program and How to Write a Maintenance Work Order.
How We Evaluated
This guide is independent editorial analysis based on publicly available BLS pages. Reliable Magazine does not sell safety consulting, PPE, or CMMS and has no commercial interest in routing readers toward any vendor. Reliable does not accept payment for inclusion in this guide. Vendors may sponsor enhanced listings with additional detail, but editorial rankings are independent. Read our editorial policy.
The figures here trace to a defined set of Bureau of Labor Statistics pages that we opened directly: the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries for 2024 (USDL-26-0230, for release 10:00 a.m. ET Thursday, February 19, 2026), including Table 3 and the selected-occupations rate chart; Table A-5, fatal occupational injuries by occupation and event, 2024; the hours-based fatal injury rates for civilian workers, 2024; Table A-1, by industry, 2024; the Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, 2023-2024 news release (SOII, last modified January 22, 2026); and SOII Table 1, incidence rates by industry and case types, 2024.
CFOI vs SOII: Two Surveys, Two Units
The two BLS programs answer different questions. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries counts every fatal work injury in the country for the year, and it includes self-employed workers. The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses is an employer-reported survey of nonfatal cases, and it generally leaves the self-employed out.
The units differ as well. Fatal injury rates are expressed per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. SOII Table 1 incidence rates are per 100 FTE. The gap is a factor of a thousand in the denominator, so the two rates are never interchangeable and never belong in one column.
The practical rule for a slide is simple. A CFOI fatality count and a SOII incidence rate should not be strung together as a single series or trend line. They come from separate collections, cover separate populations, and carry separate units.
The Group BLS Actually Prints: Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations (SOC 49-0000)
The printed major group is installation, maintenance, and repair occupations, coded SOC 49-0000. It recorded 437 fatal work injuries in 2024, down slightly from 443 in 2023. Its hours-based fatality rate was 8.9 per 100,000 FTE, with a margin of error of 0.28 for that rate. Hours worked were 9,800 million, the sampled denominator.
For scale, all U.S. fatal work injuries totaled 5,070 in 2024, down from 5,283 in 2023, and the all-worker rate was 3.3 per 100,000 FTE, down from 3.5. The maintenance occupation group therefore ran well above the national all-worker rate.
Table 3 lists neighboring major groups that are often confused with this one but are not part of it. Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations recorded 356 fatalities in 2024 (337 in 2023). Construction and extraction occupations recorded 1,032. Those sit outside SOC 49-0000.
Vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics, installers, and repairers recorded 157 fatalities in 2024 (163 in 2023). Table 3 indents that row under installation, maintenance, and repair occupations; SOC 49-3000 is a subgroup of SOC 49-0000, so the 157 is already inside the 437. Automotive service technicians and bus and truck mechanics are treated the same way in the next section: nested inside the major group, not alongside it.
Named Plant-Adjacent Occupations, Kept Separate
The occupations below are drawn from Table A-5 for 2024 and from the selected-occupations rate chart. Every one of them is nested inside the 437-fatality major group. Mutually exclusive detailed occupations can be added as a partial subtotal of SOC 49. Double-counting is adding a parent aggregate to its child rows, or adding any of those figures again to the 437.
| Occupation | 2024 fatalities | Rate per 100,000 FTE | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers | 38 | 13.1 | Chart | |
| Automotive service technicians and mechanics | 57 | 6.3 | Chart | |
| Bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists | 29 | 8.6 | Chart | |
| Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers | 33 | 6.7 | Chart | |
| Industrial machinery installation, repair, and maintenance workers | 33 | 7.0 | Chart | |
| Industrial machinery mechanics | 17 | Not printed | A-5 | No hours-based rate on the pages used here |
| Maintenance workers, machinery | 11 | Not printed | A-5 | No hours-based rate on the pages used here |
| Millwrights | 5 | Not printed | A-5 | No hours-based rate on the pages used here |
| Line installers and repairers | 36 | Not printed | A-5 | |
| Electrical power-line installers and repairers | 21 | 13.8 | Chart | |
| Telecommunications line installers and repairers | 15 | 11.5 | Chart | |
| Maintenance and repair workers, general | 76 | 10.8 | Chart | |
| Wind turbine service technicians | 4 | Not printed | A-5 |
A missing hours-based rate on a detailed occupation is not automatically a failure of the 5-fatality or 40-million-hour publication thresholds. BLS also restricts rates to the occupational detail available from the Current Population Survey. Several rows above show a 2024 count with no hours-based rate on the pages used here. Electricians are deliberately absent from this table, because they sit in the construction trades rather than in SOC 49.
General maintenance workers (76), HVAC mechanics (33), industrial machinery mechanics (17), millwrights (5), and electrical power-line installers (21) are mutually exclusive detailed occupations, so adding them is a legitimate partial subtotal of SOC 49. Industrial machinery installation, repair, and maintenance workers (33) and line installers and repairers (36) are summary occupations that contain child rows also shown in the table. Double-counting is parent plus child: for example, adding those summary rows together with industrial machinery mechanics (17), machinery maintenance workers (11), millwrights (5), electrical power-line installers (21), or telecommunications line installers (15); or adding any of those figures again to the 437.
How They Died: Fatal Events in SOC 49-0000
The event breakdown below is for the maintenance occupation group only. Table A-5 prints 437 fatalities for the group and separately prints exposure to harmful substances or environments 108, contact incidents 99, transportation incidents 85, falls, slips, and trips 81, and violent acts 46. Animal contacts sit under contact incidents, not violent acts. The same row prints a dash for explosions and fires. Those event cells are separately printed figures, not an add that must equal 437, and this guide does not fill the dash with a remainder. BLS notes that dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.
| Event category | SOC 49-0000 (437) | Maintenance and repair workers, general (76) |
|---|---|---|
| Violent acts | 46 | 12 |
| Transportation incidents | 85 | 13 |
| Explosions and fires | Dash | Dash |
| Falls, slips, trips | 81 | 18 |
| Exposure to harmful substances or environments | 108 | 20 |
| Contact incidents | 99 | 13 |
As national context across all workers, and not a SOC 49-0000 breakdown, transportation incidents caused 1,937 deaths, or 38.2 percent of all fatalities in 2024. Falls, slips, and trips accounted for 844, contact incidents for 756, violent acts for 733, and exposure to harmful substances or environments for 687, down from 820 in 2023.
Keep those two pictures apart on a slide. The event mix for maintenance occupations is not the national event mix, and the national percentages do not describe SOC 49-0000. For the energy-control rule behind many of the contact and exposure cases, see the Lockout/Tagout Reference: 29 CFR 1910.147 and Its Most-Cited Provisions, which is a regulatory reference rather than a BLS figure.
Occupation Is Not Industry
The same worker can be counted one way by occupation and another way by industry. Those totals are not directly comparable and need not match, though accidental numerical equality remains possible. In 2024 private-industry manufacturing recorded 353 fatalities at a rate of 2.4 per 100,000 FTE. Private-industry utilities recorded 30 at a rate of 2.3. Private industry accounted for 4,616 of the 5,070 total, with the remainder in government.
Industry codes carry their own maintenance category that is easy to mistake for the occupation group. Repair and maintenance under NAICS 811 posted a rate of 6.8 per 100,000 FTE on 4,300 million hours. That is an industry, not the SOC 49 occupation group, and the two should not be quoted as if they were the same population.
The construction figures show the same trap from the other direction. Private construction industry recorded 1,034 fatalities at a rate of 9.2 per 100,000 FTE. Civilian construction and extraction occupations recorded 1,032. Those are different scopes (private industry versus a civilian occupational group), so the near-identical counts are not the same kind of total.
Nonfatal Injuries and Illnesses: SOII 2024, Private Industry
Nonfatal rates come from SOII Table 1 and are expressed per 100 FTE. The table below reports the total recordable case rate (TRC), which covers injuries and illnesses, and its components: days away, restricted, or transferred cases (DART), days away from work (DAFW), days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR), and other recordable cases.
| Industry (2024) | TRC | DART | DAFW | DJTR | Other recordable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private industry, all | 2.3 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| Manufacturing | 2.7 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.0 |
| Utilities | 1.9 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| Water, sewage, and other systems | 2.2 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.8 |
| Repair and maintenance (NAICS 811) | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
The 2024 news release adds the headline movement. Private industry logged about 2.5 million total recordable cases, down 3.1 percent from 2023, and the private TRC rate (injuries and illnesses) fell from 2.4 in 2023 to 2.3. The private injury-only rate was 2.2 per 100 FTE. The illness rate was 13.9 per 10,000 FTE, down from a printed 19.0 in 2023.
The biennial 2023-2024 detail rounds out the case picture. Days-away-from-work cases numbered about 1.8 million, or 61.5 percent of DART, at an annualized 86.6 per 10,000 FTE with a median of 8 days away. Days of job transfer or restriction cases numbered about 1.1 million, or 38.5 percent of DART, at 54.2 per 10,000 FTE with a median of 15 days. These are industry-level figures, and occupation-level SOII case rates are not quoted here.
One Glance: Which Series Says What
| Series | What it counts | Unit | 2024 figure used here | Who is in | Who is out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFOI | Fatal work injuries | Per 100,000 FTE | SOC 49-0000: 437 / 8.9 | All employee statuses including volunteers; all sectors including resident military | Rate numerator and denominator exclude under-16, volunteers, and resident military |
| SOII | Nonfatal recordable cases | Per 100 FTE | Manufacturing TRC 2.7 | Employer-reported | Self-employed, farms with 10 or fewer employees, private-household workers, volunteers, and federal-government workers |
Honest Limitations
- The self-employed fatal injury rate was 10.8 per 100,000 FTE in 2024, against 2.9 for wage-and-salary workers, and none of the self-employed fatal experience will show up in SOII.
- CFOI rates exclude workers under 16, volunteers, and resident military personnel.
- Classification changed with the 2023 reference year: CFOI now uses NAICS 2022 and OIICS version 3, so pre-2023 event detail should not be spliced onto these tables.
- The 2025 CFOI and SOII reference years are not on these pages.
- State-level tables were not opened for this guide.
- Dashes on the BLS tables indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. A dash is not a definite nonzero suppressed value.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many maintenance workers die at work each year according to BLS?
BLS does not print a single “maintenance worker” total. The nearest printed major group is installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (SOC 49-0000), with 437 fatal work injuries in 2024 at 8.9 per 100,000 FTE. Within that group, maintenance and repair workers, general, recorded 76 fatalities at 10.8. Those are separate figures and should not be combined into one number.
What is the difference between CFOI and SOII?
CFOI is a census of all fatal work injuries for the year and includes the self-employed, and its rates are per 100,000 FTE. SOII is an employer-reported survey of nonfatal injuries and illnesses that generally excludes the self-employed, and its Table 1 rates are per 100 FTE. Because the populations and units differ, a CFOI fatality figure and a SOII rate should not be shown as one series.
Is installation, maintenance, and repair occupations the same as plant maintenance in manufacturing?
No. Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations is an occupation group (SOC 49-0000) that spans every industry, while manufacturing is an industry (NAICS). In 2024 the occupation group recorded 437 fatalities. Private-industry manufacturing recorded 353 fatalities at a rate of 2.4 per 100,000 FTE. A worker can fall in the occupation group while employed in a non-manufacturing industry, so the two totals answer different questions.
What events account for fatal injuries in installation, maintenance, and repair occupations?
Table A-5 prints 437 fatalities for SOC 49-0000 in 2024 and separately prints exposure to harmful substances or environments 108, contact incidents 99, transportation incidents 85, falls, slips, and trips 81, and violent acts 46. The same row prints a dash for explosions and fires. Those event cells are separately printed figures, not an add that must equal 437, and this guide does not fill the dash with a remainder. These come from the occupation-by-event table and should not be mixed with national all-worker event totals.
Can millwright, HVAC, and general maintenance fatality counts be added together?
Yes, as a partial subtotal of SOC 49. Millwrights, HVAC mechanics, and general maintenance workers are mutually exclusive detailed occupations. Adding them does not double-count. Double-counting is adding a parent aggregate such as industrial machinery installation, repair, and maintenance workers or line installers and repairers together with its child rows, or adding that subtotal again to the 437.
What is the 2024 nonfatal recordable rate in manufacturing and utilities?
In the 2024 SOII, the total recordable case rate, covering injuries and illnesses, was 2.7 per 100 FTE in manufacturing and 1.9 per 100 FTE in utilities. Those are not injury-only rates. The private-industry injury-only rate was 2.2 per 100 FTE, against a private TRC of 2.3. These SOII rates are not comparable to fatal injury rates, which are expressed per 100,000 FTE.
Related Guides
- Lockout/Tagout Reference: 29 CFR 1910.147 and Its Most-Cited Provisions
- How to Start a PdM Program: Predictive Maintenance Steps and Worked Examples
- How to Plan a Plant Turnaround
- How to Write a Maintenance Work Order: What to Include and a Worked Example
- RCM vs FMEA: What’s the Difference, and Which One Do You Need?
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2024 (USDL-26-0230) (all-worker 5,070 fatalities and 3.3 per 100,000 FTE; Table 3 installation, maintenance, and repair occupations 437)
Figures reflect the named BLS CFOI 2024 and SOII 2024 pages; actual workplace results vary by occupation, industry, and year.
