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14.9 percent of civilian jobs exposed to hazardous contaminants in 2016

May 31, 2017

Among all civilian jobs, 14.9 percent were exposed to hazardous contaminants in 2016. Half of the jobs in construction and extraction occupations were exposed to hazardous contaminants, as were half of the jobs in life, physical, and social science occupations. Those were the highest shares among all occupational groups.

 

 

Percent of civilian jobs exposed to hazardous contaminants, by occupation, 2016
Occupation Exposed to hazardous contaminants Not exposed to hazardous contaminants

All jobs

14.9% 85.1%

Construction and extraction

49.7 50.3

Life, physical, and social science

49.5 50.5

Installation, maintenance, and repair

44.1 55.9

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

35.0 65.0

Protective service

33.0 67.0

Healthcare practitioners and technical

30.6 69.4

Production

28.7 71.3

Transportation and material moving

20.0 80.0

Healthcare support

18.7 81.3

Architecture and engineering

13.0 87.0

Personal care and service

9.3 90.7

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 91.3

Management

7.8 92.2

Sales and related

6.4 93.6

Education, training, and library

2.8 97.2

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.5(1) 98.5

Computer and mathematical

1.2(1) 98.8

Office and administrative support

1.2 98.8

Business and financial operations

1.1(1) 98.9

Community and social service

0.9(1) 99.1

Legal

0.8(1) 99.2
Footnotes:

(1) Estimate not available from public data-retrieval tool. Estimate was derived by subtracting from 100 the percentage not exposed to hazardous contaminants.

Other occupations in which large shares of jobs were exposed to hazardous contaminants include installation, maintenance, and repair (44.1 percent); building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (35.0 percent); protective service (33.0 percent); healthcare practitioners and technical (30.6 percent); and production occupations (28.7 percent).

Less than 2.0 percent of jobs were exposed to hazardous contaminants among legal, community and social service, business and financial operations, office and administrative support, computer and mathematical, and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations.

These data are from the Occupational Requirements Survey. To learn more, see "Occupational Requirements in the United States — 2016" (HTML) (PDF). Civilian jobs are wage and salary jobs in private industry or state and local government.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, 14.9 percent of civilian jobs exposed to hazardous contaminants in 2016 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/14-point-9-percent-of-civilian-jobs-exposed-to-hazardous-contaminants-in-2016.htm (visited December 03, 2024).

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