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More than 2.3 million workers die in the workplace every year from jobs that are while dangerous, has to be done by someone. Measures are put in place to protect these workers but accidents always happen and sometimes workers aren’t close enough to a medical facility to make it in time.
You may be asking why do these people put themselves at risk? The answer is that despite the danger people have to support their families and a lot of these jobs pay quite a bit more than an average desk job.
Keep reading to find out if you would be up to the task for one of these jobs or see if your current occupation is on this list.
1. Fishers
Commercial fishing isn’t just a matter of riding a boat out on the ocean and catching a few fish. Workers can easily die from a simple slip up with the gear due to exhaustion from the days on the boat. The elements they’re exposed to won’t do them any favors either.
There is also the matter of bringing up heavy nets full of fish on to a slippery deck. It’s very easy to fall overboard and drown because you couldn’t be rescued in time.
Days of extreme weather, coupled with being so far out that there isn’t any medical help around for miles make this one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
2. Logging
Logging is another physically grueling job that involves workers laboring outside in the heat with dangerous equipment. While the industry tries to do what it can to keep it’s workers safe, accidents certainly happen. Usually, it’s due to a hangup with the machinery, someone being struck over the head by a falling limb or just general exhaustion.
While sometimes it’s possible for these workers to hurry to a nearest medical facility to get treatment for their injuries, it’s not always available. Often times they’re too far out remotely to receive help in time.
3. Aircraft Pilots and Engineers
The amount of money that you can make as an aircraft pilot or flight engineer is amazing but not worth the risk. While you would think that the most common injury that you could suffer from with these jobs is a plane crash, more often than not it’s related to exhaustion.
The job comes with a ton of mental stress from not only getting the plane to its destination but also layovers, and a ton scheduling conflicts. If a crash doesn’t get you, all those overnighters will do you in at some point.
4. Roofing
While there is plenty of work going around in the world of roofing, you’ll be faced with some pretty harsh conditions. For one, there are a million things that you can fall off of, from ladders to scaffoldings. While you may be able to survive some smaller falls, you won’t always get so lucky.
Even if you don’t fall, the heat from the summer months is no joke when you’re working on a roof. A lot of workers become ill from the intense heat.
5. Recyclable Materials Collectors
Like pilots, recyclable materials and trash collectors run the risk of vehicle-related injuries. Crashes are the most common form of death for one of these workers.
If they don’t crash they may fall to illness at some point down the line. These workers are constantly exposed to pollutants from the things that they pick up.
6. Oilfield Workers
Oilfield workers are pressured to work as fast as they can. This causes them to slack on safety in favor of being productive which results in many deaths each year due to equipment misuse. Sometimes the workers aren’t even trained properly to use the machines.
These workers often pull long shifts that are hours away from their homes. More often than not, they fall asleep at the wheel during their commute. Other forms of oilfield injuries come from being struck on the head by a falling object, slipping, and deadly illnesses from heavy chemical exposure.
7. Structural Iron and Steel Workers
While this job isn’t as fatal as some of the other jobs on this list, the sheer amount of injuries that the workers face make it no less dangerous. Like roofing, you’ll be faced with heights while installing heavy steel or making repairs to the steel already on a building, road, or bridge.
As you can imagine, a lot of injuries come from the workers slipping and falling. While they don’t always die from these falls, they do suffer heavy injury most of the time.
8. Truck Drivers
Truck drivers have to spend long hours on the road without rest in some cases to ensure they reach their destinations on time. This often causes automobile collisions from the driver falling asleep at the wheel.
A truck driver’s job doesn’t end when they reach their destination. They’re also required to offload their cargo. All that heavy lifting can cause serious injury on down the line.
Dangerous Jobs but Someone Has to Do it
As you can see there are a ton of dangerous jobs out there. Despite this, some of them pay quite well for the risk and somebody has to do them in order for the world to go round. Would you be up for the task, or did your job actually make the list?
As you probably noticed, a lot of the common reasons for casualties for most of these jobs was exhaustion from either grueling labor or being completely overworked. Keep reading to find out how you can avoid working your employees to the bone.
