by Inspired by a Twitter post by @ScoLatham, I got curious about occupational/professional fatality risks for various types of jobs, and how those risks relate to the risk dying of Covid.
Before reading on, I’d strongly suggest you have a look at the Twitter post linked above, it gives a very interesting perspective on many things about the current Covid panic and hysteria, not least why some people are neither very concerned about the virus, nor very interested in “getting the jab”.
Anyhow, I managed to find data on occupation specific fatalities for US 2020, from US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and I managed to find a very recent Danish study , from Nov. 2021, on Covid Infection Fatality Rates (IFR), so I pulled down the data from the sources.
(From the Danish study, I’m using their finding for IFR for the cohort 17-50 years, which is the closest match for comparing the IFR with the occupational fatality rates provided by US Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Let’s start with a summary of occupational fatality rates for a few categories of jobs/professions:
The horizontal dashed black line shows the Covid IFR (3.36 per 100K) for 17 to 50 year olds. The red bars shows the occupational fatality risk for 7 different professional categories.
(double-click on the image for better resolution).
So, if you are working in Natural Resources (Forestry, Mining, Fishing etc) Construction or Maintenance, your job is about 3x more likely to kill you than is Covid. If you are working in Production or Transportation, your job is more than 2x more likely to kill you than Covid.
However, if you belong to the “LapTop Class”, that is, academic, professional or management, Covid is 3-4 times more likely to kill you than your job… No wonder the LapTop Class doesn’t seem to mind the lockdowns and other restrictions – they are simply terrified of the virus, since for them, Covid is, in terms of risk, the biggest threat they’ve ever faced, while the working class face much greater risks in their daily jobs, every day…
Now, since the estimated Covid IFR above is just that, an estimate based on one study, we could always argue that “no way, Covid IFR is much higher than 3.36 per 100.000”. So, let’s assume it’s 3 times the finding from the Danish study, that is 10 per 100.000, and let’s have a more detailed look at the top 10 risky jobs:
Even if the Covid IFR would be 10 per 100K, the risks of dying associated with many bluecollar jobs are vastly larger than the risk of dying of Covid.
Below a very busy chart with all the jobs.
| Fishing and hunting workers | 132.1 | ||
| Logging workers | 91.7 | ||
| Roofers | 47.0 | ||
| Helpers, construction trades | 43.3 | ||
| Aircraft pilots and flight engineers | 34.3 | ||
| Refuse and recyclable material collectors | 33.1 | ||
| Structural iron and steel workers | 32.5 | ||
| Driver/sales workers and truck drivers | 25.8 | ||
| Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations | 25.3 | ||
| Underground mining machine operators | 21.6 | ||
| Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers | 20.9 | ||
| Grounds maintenance workers | 19.4 | ||
| Electrical power-line installers and repairers | 18.6 | ||
| Construction laborers | 18.1 | ||
| Construction equipment operators | 17.6 | ||
| Miscellaneous agricultural workers | 16.6 | ||
| First-line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service, and groundskeeping workers | 15.3 | ||
| First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers | 14.4 | ||
| Construction and extraction occupations | 13.5 | ||
| Police officers | 13.4 | ||
| Transportation and material moving occupations | 13.1 | ||
| Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations | 12.6 | ||
| Maintenance and repair workers, general | 12.3 | ||
| First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers | 11.7 | ||
| Painters and paperhangers | 11.6 | ||
| Telecommunications line installers and repairers | 11.6 | ||
| Welding, soldering, and brazing workers | 9.2 | ||
| Production, transportation, and material moving occupations | 8.8 | ||
| Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations | 8.6 | ||
| Security guards and gambling surveillance officers | 8.3 | ||
| Electricians | 8.0 | ||
| Carpenters | 7.8 | ||
| Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations | 7.2 | ||
| Automotive service technicians and mechanics | 7.2 | ||
| Protective service occupations | 7.1 | ||
| Athletes, coaches, umpires, and related workers | 6.2 | ||
| Industrial machinery installation, repair, and maintenance workers | 6.2 | ||
| Bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists | 6.0 | ||
| Industrial truck and tractor operators | 5.9 | ||
| Pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters | 5.2 | ||
| Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers | 5.1 | ||
| Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand | 5.0 | ||
| Service occupations | 3.8 | ||
| Construction managers | 3.4 | ||
| First-line supervisors of production and operating workers | 3.2 | ||
| Cashiers (including gambling change persons and booth cashiers ) | 3.0 | ||
| Production occupations | 3.0 | ||
| Emergency medical technicians and paramedics | 2.8 | ||
| Supervisors of food preparation and serving workers | 2.8 | ||
| Janitors and building cleaners | 2.7 | ||
| Property, real estate, and community association managers | 2.6 | ||
| Personal care and service occupations | 2.3 | ||
| First-line supervisors of retail sales workers | 2.0 | ||
| Management occupations | 1.9 | ||
| Food preparation and serving related occupations | 1.7 | ||
| Sales and related occupations | 1.6 | ||
| Retail salespersons | 1.6 | ||
| Management, business, and financial operations occupations | 1.4 | ||
| Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations | 1.4 | ||
| Food service managers | 1.1 | ||
| Healthcare support occupations | 1.1 | ||
| Architecture and engineering occupations | 1.0 | ||
| Life, physical, and social science occupations | 1.0 | ||
| Community and social service occupations | 1.0 | ||
| Sales and office occupations | 1.0 | ||
| First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers | 1.0 | ||
| Management, professional, and related occupations | 0.9 | ||
| Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations | 0.6 | ||
| Professional and related occupations | 0.5 | ||
| Office and administrative support occupations | 0.5 | ||
| Registered nurses | 0.4 | ||
| Business and financial operations occupations | 0.3 | ||
| Legal occupations | 0.3 | ||
| Educational instruction and library occupations | 0.2 | ||
| Computer and mathematical occupations | 0.1 |
