Australia's deadliest industries revealed in new Safe Work Australia report

Just six industries were home to 80 per cent of deaths in the workplace last year.

Safe Work Australia has released its new Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia report, which revealed 188 people were fatally injured at work in 2024 - a decline on 200 in 2023.

The watchdog said 80 per cent of these deaths had taken place across just six industries - agriculture, forestry, and fishing; public administration and safety; transport, postal, and warehousing; manufacturing; health care and social assistance; and construction.

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The report also showed vehicle incidents remained the leading cause of job deaths (42 per cent, or 79 fatalities), followed by falls from a height (13 per cent, or 24 fatalities).

And while Australia's workplace safety generally compares well to the rest of the world, with an injury rate of 3.5 per cent compared to the global 12.1 per cent, Safe Work Australia says the impact is still deeply felt.

In 2023–24, there were 146,700 serious workers' compensation claims involving at least one week of working time lost, equivalent to more than 400 serious claims every day.

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Claims for mental health conditions continue to rise and now account for 12 per cent of all serious claims, an increase of 14.7 per cent from the previous year.

The median time lost from work in these claims is almost five times that recorded across all other injuries and diseases.

"Our data show there is still more to be done to ensure every worker, regardless of occupation or industry, returns home safely at the end of the day," Safe Work Australia chief executive Marie Boland said.

"Behind every statistic is a person, a family, workmates, a community and a story."

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