Being murdered on the job is a surprisingly high possibility in the US

A new report on fatal occupational injuries in the US by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shed light on a surprisingly common occurrence: violent deaths in the workplace.

According to the government agency, 458 people were violently killed in their workplace in 2023. The BLS published the information one year after gathering the data.

The Bureau said 5,283 people received fatal work injuries that year. The most common ones are traffic-related, but violent acts are surprisingly high on the list.

The nearly half a thousand people murdered in their jobs represent almost 10% of all workplace deaths in 2023. According to CNN, the data also includes self-inflicted wounds.

The broadcaster said, however, that violent deaths in the workplace were down from 524 in 2022. That averaged over ten murders each week that year and nine last year.

The outlet also said that in the last five years of available data (from 2018 to 2023), 2,762 people died from violent events in their workplace.

Some seem pretty straightforward: security guards or police officers fatally injured in the line of duty. However, CNN said that murders are also common in other work sectors.

The broadcaster claims that retail workers died as often, if not more, than workers in protective services. In 2023, 94 retail workers were killed against 93 police officers or security guards.

The outlet also pointed at workplace mass shootings as a contributor to the high rate of workplace murders in the US. They are much more common than workers know.

School workers and students are prepared and aware of the possibility. However, mass shootings occur in other workplaces as well and can go unnoticed.

CNN cited a 2019 survey by the American Psychological Association that said 25% of workers do not fear a mass shooting on their jobs; they fear public spaces more, but that is inaccurate.

The broadcaster said that according to the mass shootings database of the nonpartisan research center Violence Prevention Project, around 30% of the events happened at their perpetrator's workplace.

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