Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Workplace violence in education, training, and library occupations

September 01, 2016

From 2011 to 2014, education, training, and library workers sustained 29 fatal injuries as a result of violence by people or animals. Of these 29 violent fatalities, 13 were intentionally self-inflicted, 12 were intentional injuries by another person, and 4 were inflicted by another person either unintentionally or with unknown intentions. Violence was second only to transportation incidents as the most frequent source of fatalities for educators, accounting for 41 work-related fatalities.

Fatal occupational injuries for education, training, and library workers by events or exposures, 2011–14
Fatal injury Workers

Transportation incidents

41

Violence and other injuries by persons or animals

29

Falls, slips, trips

26

Contact with objects and equipment

5

Exposure to harmful substances or environments

4

Overexertion and bodily reaction

4

Violence and other injuries caused by people or animals accounted for 24 percent of all nonfatal injuries requiring educators to miss work in 2014. Of the 24 percent of violence-related injuries, about 3 in 5 were intentional injuries by a person. Falls, slips, and trips were the only cause of workplace injuries that accounted for more nonfatal injuries to educators than violence.

Percent distribution of nonfatal injuries and illnesses with days away from work for the education, training, and library workers by events or exposures, 2014
Nonfatal injury or illness Percent distribution

Falls, slips, trips

42%

Violence and other injuries by persons or animals

24

Overexertion and bodily reaction

18

Contact with objects and equipment

10

Exposure to harmful substances or environments

3

Transportation incidents

3

In 2014, educators were injured at a rate of 13.9 cases of workplace violence per 10,000 full-time workers. That compares to 6.8 cases per 10,000 for all workers. While violence-related incidence rates were higher for educators than for all workers, the overall injury rates for educators were much lower. The incidence rate for injuries from all causes was 59.0 for educators, compared to 107.1 for all workers.

These data are from the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program. For more information, see the Monthly Labor Review article “Putting violence in perspective: how safe are America’s educators in the workplace?

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Workplace violence in education, training, and library occupations at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/workplace-violence-in-education-training-and-library-occupations.htm (visited March 28, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics


triangle