Workforce Language Services

This recently released report found that the most dangerous industries are agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting.  While construction, an industry in which many Latino immigrants work, wasn’t ranked as one of the most dangerous, more construction workers overall died while on the job.

The overall death rate remained the same from 2005 to 2006 except for Latinos, for whom the death rate increased from 4.7 per 100,000 to 5 per 100,000. 

The AFL-CIO’s report serves as an important reminder of what needs to be done to ensure the safety of Latinos working in historically dangerous industries:

That’s partly because Latino workers include many immigrants who tend to be concentrated in dangerous occupations, like agriculture and construction, said Maria Blanco, director of the Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at UC Berkeley’s Law School, which had studied similar issues.

Workers who don’t speak or read English are often at greater risk because they don’t understand safety instructions, Blanco said. And for some immigrants, the need for the job is so great that they’re less willing to walk away from a risky situation, she said.

“That combination has created this concentration of injuries and deaths,” said Blanco. “Two things could make a huge difference. First, job training and postings have to be bilingual. And since it’s easy to see the industries where the deaths are focused, it should be possible to have targeted accident education and enforcement.”

To read the full article and see the link to the full report, click here.