Workplace suicides are becoming more common in the United States, but the rate at which workers kill themselves differs greatly between various professions.
Protective services, including police, firemen and criminal investigators, has the highest suicide rate of all professions, according to a new study. An average of 5.3 out of every million such workers successfully commit suicide while on the job every year. This is more than 3.5 times the normal rate of 1.5 per million across the United States. Around 144.1 Americans out of every million commit suicide each year outside their place of employment.
The Census of Fatal Occupational Injury (CFOI) database, compiled by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), was used to identify rates of suicide among various occupations.
"Occupation can largely define a person's identity, and psychological risk factors for suicide, such as depression and stress, can be affected by the workplace. A more comprehensive view of work life, public health and work safety could enable a better understanding of suicide risk factors and how to address them," Hope Tiesman, an epidemiologist from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and lead investigator on this study, said.
Employees who work in the fields of fishing, farming and forest services were found to have the second-highest rate of workplace suicides at 5.1 per million. An average of 3.3 people per million in installation, maintenance and repair services commit suicide on the job, although automotive repair personnel peak at 7.1 per million.
Around one million people kill themselves each year around the globe, including 36,000 Americans. The practice is now the leading cause of death by injury in the United States, surpassing automobile accidents.
Men were found to be 15 times more likely than women to kill themselves while on the job, and workers aged 65 to 74 were four times more likely to take their own lives while working than employees between the ages of 16 and 24.
Around 3.26 million Americans are employees in the protective services industries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Information on workplace suicides by soldiers is unclear, as the Department of Defense reports such casualties using a different method than utilized in the CFOI database.
A total of 1,719 men and women committed suicide on the job between the years 2003 and 2010. The rate of workplace suicides has climbed dramatically since 2007, following a series of annual declines. This new study could potentially serve as the basis of evidence-based suicide prevention plans catered to specific occupations, researchers concluded.
Analysis of suicide rates among different professions was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Photo: Naval History & Heritage Command | Flickr
