In 2024 in the U.S., private industry employers reported over 1.8 million nonfatal injury cases that led to days away from work (DAFW): 1,054,670 involving men and 752,900 involving women.
Such significant injury numbers emphasize the physical toll of working in industries such as construction, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail.
While men account for a larger overall share, women also suffer a high number of work-related injuries, which often specifically and disproportionately affect women or are effectively women-only injury issues. This reinforces the need for targeted, gender-specific prevention strategies and safer working conditions for all employees.
This study will closely consider workplace injury trends to discern gender disparities, looking at the types of injury prevalent in dangerous industries, and at female-specific kinds of injury. As a prelude to those sections, let’s look at some broad gender-related injury statistics.
Workplace Injuries by Gender
Every year, millions of United States employees suffer workplace injuries that are bad enough to stop them from carrying out their normal duties. And study data suggests that how workers are affected by workplace injuries can significantly differ depending on their gender.
In 2024, there were 2,983,110 workplace injury cases involving days away from work, job transfer, or restricted duties (DART). (DART figures represent the broadest measure of serious workplace injuries that require workers to either take time off or continue working in a limited or modified capacity.)
Of these cases, 1,700,630 involved men (57% of all serious workplace injuries), with 1,244,780 involving women (41.7%). That means men experienced around 455,000 more serious workplace injuries than women.
These findings reflect not only the physical demands of certain industries but also the widespread nature of occupational injury risk that affects workers across most job sectors.
If we examine the most severe category of workplace injuries (those involving days away from work (DAFW), the data suggests that 1,834,600 workers were injured seriously enough to require at least one full day away from their jobs, significantly disrupting both individual workers and national business operations.
Within this category, men accounted for 1,054,670 injuries (57.5%) that required time off work, while women experienced 752,900 injuries (41.%).
This means that men suffered around 301,000 more injuries that required time away from work compared to women.
Again, the figures highlight a disproportionate injury burden among male workers. Injuries requiring time off work are especially significant because they often indicate more severe physical harm, longer recovery periods, and greater economic consequences for both employees and employers.
In addition to injuries that forced workers to stop working entirely, many injuries resulted in employees being unable to perform their full job duties, necessitating role reassignment or modified responsibilities.
1,148,510 cases involved job transfer or restricted work activity (DJTR), meaning workers remained employed but could not perform their normal duties due to injury-related limitations.
Of these cases, 645,950 involved men (56.2%), while 491,880 involved women (42.8%). These injuries often reflect conditions such as musculoskeletal strain, repetitive motion injuries, or physical trauma that prevents workers from lifting, standing, operating machinery, or performing other essential functions.
While these injuries may not always require complete absence from work, they often involve extended recovery periods and reduced productivity.
Comparatively high injury totals among men are largely driven by their overrepresentation in physically demanding and higher-risk occupations.
These include transportation, construction, manufacturing, and lifting-and-carrying roles, where exposure to heavy machinery, vehicle operation, and manual labor significantly increases injury risk.
Women frequently experience injuries related to their disproportionate representation in service-oriented fields such as healthcare, education, retail, and administrative roles. These injuries are often due to repetitive motion, patient handling, prolonged standing, and physical interaction with the public.
For men and women, these injuries not only affect physical health and financial stability, but also cost employers substantial amounts due to lost productivity and medical expenses.
1.8 million workers forced to take time off work entirely, and nearly 3 million injuries serious enough to alter workers’ job duties emphasizes the importance of workplace safety initiatives, injury prevention strategies, and improved occupational protections.
And that’s particularly true for the nation’s ten most dangerous industries, which are listed in the following table.
Top 10 Most Dangerous U.S. Industries
Injuries that lead to time away from work affect hundreds of thousands of U.S. employees every year, highlighting the widespread, persistent risks present across nearly every major industry.
Among all sectors, health care and social assistance reported the highest number of injuries that led to days off work: 383,390, making it the most dangerous industry in terms of injury volume.
This means healthcare workers (nurses, nursing assistants, home health aides, and medical support staff) experience more injuries that necessitate time off than workers in traditionally hazardous industries like construction and manufacturing.
Healthcare injuries are often due to physically demanding tasks such as lifting or moving patients, repetitive motion, prolonged standing, and various other wearying demands.
The transportation and warehousing industry reported the second-highest number of injuries (248,780). This reflects the risks associated with truck driving, freight handling, warehouse operations, heavy lifting, operating often dangerous machinery and vehicles, and physically demanding labor.
The retail trade industry is next up on the highest number of injuries list (237,390), demonstrating the significant physical strain faced by retail employees who routinely lift and carry merchandise, stock shelves, and stay on their feet for prolonged periods.
The manufacturing industry also reported a substantial injury burden (216,430), underscoring the continued risks associated with operating machines, repetitive motion, and production line work.
Meanwhile, workers in the leisure, entertainment, and hospitality industry suffered 187,630 injuries due to the prolonged physical demands of service-based roles.
The education sector reported 152,200 injuries, demonstrating that teachers, support staff, and school employees also face significant injury risks such as slips, falls, and repetitive stress injuries.
Similarly, the construction industry reported 134,240 injuries that necessitated time off work, reflecting the dangers of physically demanding labor, elevated work environments, and operating heavy equipment.
Additional high-risk industries included administrative and support services (118,580 injuries), wholesale trade (95,160), and accommodation and food services (94,030). This makes it clear that workplace injuries are not confined to traditionally hazardous occupations and are prevalent across both physical labor and service-oriented industries.
The fact that the healthcare and service-based industries reported the highest number of injuries vanquishes the myth that construction and manufacturing are the most dangerous sectors.
The rankings instead serve to emphasize the significant physical demands placed on workers in caregiving, transportation, and frontline service roles.
The overall injury findings clearly show that there’s a continued need for improved workplace safety protocols across an eclectic range of sectors. That means better injury prevention strategies and employer-supported protections to reduce injury risk and protect workers across the U.S. workforce.
And in terms of targeted injury prevention and management, it’s also important to understand gender differentials across all industries.
Workplace Injuries: The Gender Differential
Working men and women both face everyday injury risks. As we’ve established, for some sectors, the risks are elevated. But it’s also important to establish the fact that, because many sectors feature a disproportionate number of either men or women, the risks for that gender in each case are also disproportionate.
For example, female-dominated roles in health care are often physically demanding, due to lifting and moving patients, standing around for long periods, and doing the same repetitive tasks over and over again, all of which increase the likelihood of specific types of injury over time.
At the same time, male-dominated industries such as transportation and warehousing, manufacturing, construction, and wholesale trade are also subject to significant injury risks due to the very specific and often extreme physical nature of the work.
Service-oriented industries featuring higher proportions of female workers (retail trade, educational services, and accommodation and food services) also carry a significant risk of injury.
Workers in these industries often develop cumulative strain and injury over time, despite the common misperception that these roles are not dangerous. Similarly, industries featuring a more balanced workforce representation (administrative and support services and hospitality-related sectors) continue to report significant injury risk due to a combination of physical and repetitive job demands.
Overall, these patterns reveal that workplace injury risk is closely tied to the physical demands and daily responsibilities associated with different industries, rather than being limited to a small number of stereotypically hazardous roles.
Male–dominated industries tend to involve risks related to heavy labor, machinery, and transportation, while female–dominated industries feature risks associated with repetitive motion, caregiving, and prolonged physical activity.
It’s clear: occupational injury risk affects both industrial and service-based workers. This reinforces the importance of better workplace safety protections, targeted injury prevention strategies, and addressing the specific physical demands faced by workers across all industries to reduce the overall burden of workplace injuries nationwide.
Let’s now focus on the most common types of injury workers suffer while carrying out their roles.
Common U.S. Workplace Injuries
Workplace injuries involving days away from work are overwhelmingly driven by musculoskeletal damage, with sprains, strains, and tears accounting for 568,150 cases.
That’s 47.5% of all reported injuries in this dataset, making these the single most common type of workplace injury. These injuries are typically caused by lifting, overexertion, and repetitive physical motion.
They’re especially prevalent in physically demanding industries such as transportation, construction, and manufacturing, with men representing a larger share of the workforce and overall injury burden.
Other acute traumatic injury types (including cuts and lacerations (179,080 cases, or 15%), bruises and contusions (162,160 cases, or 13.6%), and fractures (139,820 cases, or 11.7%)) collectively account for over 40% of injuries, reflecting the risks associated with heavy equipment, machinery, and manual labor.
These injuries are predominantly sustained by men due to their higher representation in industrial and goods-producing occupations, where sudden physical trauma is more likely.
At the same time, injuries associated with repetitive strain and cumulative physical stress, such as soreness and inflammation (64,860 cases, 5.4%) and carpal tunnel syndrome (5,210 cases, 0.4%), are more common in service-oriented and administrative occupations where women represent a larger share of the workforce.
These injuries often develop gradually due to repetitive tasks, prolonged standing, and physically demanding caregiving or support roles, particularly in healthcare, retail, and education.
Additional injury types, such as burns (36,170 cases, 3%) and multiple traumatic injuries (36,830 cases, or 3.1%), occur across both industrial and service sectors.
Amputations (4,100 cases, or 0.3%) represent some of the most severe (albeit extremely rare) workplace injuries and are strongly associated with using machinery in male-dominated industries.
Overall, the study data clearly suggests that while men are more likely to sustain acute traumatic injuries linked to heavy labor and equipment, women are more likely to experience repetitive stress and musculoskeletal injuries associated with service and caregiving roles.
Differences aside, the dominance of sprains, strains, and tears across all industries highlights the widespread physical demands placed on workers and underscores the universal need for improved ergonomic protections and injury prevention strategies.
Additional Occupational Injuries that Primarily Affect Women
Janitorial workers and other employees in female-dominated occupations face a significant but often underrecognized injury burden, especially if the injuries in question are less obvious and medically complex. For example, janitor roles often mean repeated exposure to cleaning chemicals.
These can cause long-term respiratory, neurological, and skin-related conditions that are far more difficult to diagnose and treat than acute injuries like fractures and sprains.
And women are disproportionately affected in this field. Washington State workers’ compensation data shows that women account for 55% of janitorial claims, despite representing only 35% of the workforce; they also suffer injury rates twice as high as men.
A 2021 University of California, San Francisco study found that 46% of cleaning staff report annual nose or throat symptoms, while 31% report eye irritation: both clear indications of chemical exposure.
In addition, California’s 2025 Janitor Workload Study documented over 247,000 musculoskeletal disorder cases in 2020, reflecting the cumulative strain of repetitive motion, lifting, and physically demanding cleaning routines.
These risks are part of a broader pattern often described as ‘pink collar injury invisibility,’ which references the fact that injuries in female-dominated industries receive less attention than those in traditionally hazardous fields like construction or manufacturing.
In 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries, including high injury rates in healthcare and social assistance, a sector where women comprise roughly 78% of the workforce.
Roles in healthcare, retail, education, and administrative support frequently involve repetitive motion, prolonged standing, patient handling, and sustained physical strain, conditions that contribute to chronic musculoskeletal disorders and cumulative injuries over time.
Because many of these injuries develop gradually, they’re often difficult to track and may be underestimated in national data.
Such findings underscore the need for improved injury tracking, stronger chemical safety protections, and prevention strategies tailored to the unique physical and environmental risks faced by women in service-oriented professions.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Despite growing efforts to expand workforce participation among women and immigrant workers, structural workplace risks continue to disproportionately endanger these groups.
In construction and skilled trades, ill-fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) remains a major safety flaw, with most work gear designed for men.
A 2021 Institute for Women’s Policy Research survey found that only 19.1% of tradeswomen and non–binary workers were always provided properly fitting PPE, while nearly 40% attributed injuries or near–misses to ill–fitting equipment.
The problem is often so bad that some workers are forced to improvise unsafe solutions, such as modifying harnesses with duct tape.
This issue became so widespread that OSHA implemented a 2025 rule enforcing the provision of properly fitting PPE. At the same time, immigrant workers, particularly immigrant women, face elevated injury risks compounded by a fear of retaliation or deportation, which discourages the reporting of any issues.
Foreign-born Hispanic and Latino workers account for a disproportionately high share of workplace fatalities, while undocumented workers are significantly more likely to experience occupational injuries, with a fear of losing their job a major reason they often don’t report harm.
In service industries, outdated workplace dress codes may represent another preventable hazard. For example, mandatory high heels and gender-specific appearance requirements can unnecessarily increase the risk of falls, fractures, and chronic musculoskeletal injuries. Some studies confirm that a large share of women obliged to wear heels on the job frequently fall or suffer injuries.
These risks highlight a broader pattern. Longstanding workplace safety standards, equipment design, and policies were designed for men and are now outdated, and mean women and immigrant workers are disproportionately vulnerable to both immediate and long-term harm.
Such structural gaps further confirm that workplace injury risk is not merely a matter of individual accidents, but is shaped by systemic design, policy, and reporting barriers that compromise already underrepresented and vulnerable workers.
Workplace Injuries in the U.S.: Time to Bridge the Gender Gap
Workplace injuries continue to unevenly hamper the U.S. workforce. They reveal not only the scale of occupational harm but also clear gender-based patterns compounded by industry segregation, job roles, and structural workplace design.
In 2024 alone, private industry employers reported more than 1.8 million injuries involving days away from work (DAFW), including 1,054,670 injuries among men and 752,900 among women.
These numbers emphasize the widespread physical toll of work-related hazards across nearly every sector of the economy.
1.8 million workers forced to take time off work entirely, and nearly 3 million injuries serious enough to alter workers’ job duties emphasizes the importance of workplace safety initiatives, injury prevention strategies, and improved occupational protections
When expanded to include all serious injuries involving days away from work, job transfers, or restricted duties (DART), the injury total climbs to nearly 3 million cases nationwide, with men accounting for approximately 57% of serious injuries and women representing roughly 43%.
This disparity reflects dominant male numbers in physically intensive and high-risk industries such as transportation, construction, manufacturing, and material handling.
These industries expose workers to sudden physical hazards that can lead to immediate and severe injuries, which often require extended recovery periods and significant time away from work.
At the same time, women face a substantial and often underrecognized injury burden in service-oriented and caregiving professions. Industries such as healthcare and social assistance, retail trade, education, hospitality, and administrative support collectively account for hundreds of thousands of injuries every year.
In these sectors, which feature roles mainly occupied by women, repetitive motion, patient handling, prolonged standing, and sustained physical strain contribute to high rates of musculoskeletal disorders, sprains, strains, and cumulative stress injuries. Unlike many industrial injuries, these often develop gradually over time, which can make them less immediately obvious.
Together, these patterns illustrate that the gender gap in workplace injuries is driven less by biological differences and more by occupational segregation, job design, and systemic workforce structures. This means that men and women broadly face different types of injury vulnerability.
Men are more likely to sustain acute traumatic injuries linked to heavy labor and industrial hazards, while women are more likely to experience chronic musculoskeletal and repetitive stress injuries tied to caregiving, administrative, and service responsibilities.
Yet both groups face significant injury risk, with nearly 3 million serious cases reported in a single year, highlighting the profound human and economic impact of workplace harm. Injuries requiring time away from work or role modification disrupt lives, reduce productivity, and lead to substantial medical and compensation costs for both employees and employers.
Ultimately, study data confirms that workplace injuries remain a major national public health issue. But to improve injury rates and avoid time off work, targeted prevention strategies that address the distinct risks faced by both male and female workers are crucial, as are broader structural reforms to improve workplace safety across the entire labor force.
The Schiller Kessler Group can seek damages for injuries suffered in nearly any type of accident. No matter how minor or severe your incident was, we’ll make sure you get the payment you’re owed.
