Falling timber and contact with buzzsaws make being a logger exceptionally dangerous. And it’s not like it pays well.
SmartAsset compiled a list of the 25 most dangerous professions in the U.S., based on the number of fatalities per 100,00 workers. Logging workers have a fatality rate of 89.38, the highest on the list. The site also listed the yearly median income for each job, and loggers earn only $36,210, which is less than the overall median income ($44,819) of all full-time workers in the country. In general, most of the most dangerous jobs are forms of lower-skilled manual labor, or require driving.
Many home building-related jobs made the list, including construction laborers (11th), electricians (18th), heating and air conditioning mechanics and installers (23rd), and pipelayers and plumbers (25th).
Roofers finished fourth, with 38.70 deaths per 100,000 workers.
Most fatalities among roofers occur from slipping from scaffolding, ladders or roofs. Interestingly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that roofing will experience a 13% job growth over the next decade, which is higher than average. The occupation pays $36,720 on average.
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