It’s easy to take workplace safety for granted, especially since workers are protected by Occupational Safety & Health Administration laws. However, some jobs are safer than others. Quantifying the safest jobs is not quite as clear as finding the most dangerous.
To wit, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) most recent findings on workplace injury uncovered low incident rates across certain industries.
Low demand for travel, low physical activity and/or exertion, and workplace settings contribute to safer, physical conditions for those in the information, finance, professional/business services industries, as well as academia.
For example, the BLS reports data processing, hosting and other related careers in the information industry – e.g., IT jobs like Computer Systems Analyst and Web Developer – reported the fewest cases of on-the-job injury or illness.
This jibes with the Jobs Rated report’s environment rankings, which weigh factors of workplace safety to rank 200 different careers.
The Jobs Rated methodology for environment includes these physical factors, all of which contribute to workplace danger: energy (exertion/stamina); physical demands; work conditions (toxic fumes, noise, etc.); and degree of confinement.
Not surprising, then, that some of the best-ranked Jobs Rated careers for environment fall in the BLS industries with the lowest rate of physical incidents.
These include Actuary; Mathematician and Statistician; Computer Systems Analyst and Web Developer; and Dietitian.
The following are the 10 safest jobs of 2016.
1. Accountant
The low rate of physical incident in financial services contributes to the favorable environment ranking for accountants.