North Dakota 'an exceptionally dangerous' place to work

Roughnecks wrestle pipe on a True Company oil drilling rig outside Watford, North Dakota./ REUTERS

North Dakota had the highest job fatality rate in the nation in 2013 due to worker deaths in the oil and gas extraction and construction sectors, according to the AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO's 2015 “Death on the Job” report, released on Wednesday, calls North Dakota “an exceptionally dangerous and deadly place to work.”

The state's job fatality rate of 14.9 per 100,000 workers was more than four times the national average of 3.3 in 2013, the third year in a row that North Dakota had the highest job fatality rate, according to the report.

While the national rate declined slightly from 3.4 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2012, North Dakota's fatality rate and number of deaths — 56 in 2013 — have more than doubled since 2007, the report states.

“The fatality rate in the mining and oil and gas extraction sector in North Dakota was an alarming 84.7 per 100,000” workers, which is nearly seven times the industry's national rate of 12.4, according to the report.

And the state's construction sector fatality rate was 44.1 per 100,000 workers, which is more than four times the national rate for the industry of 9.7, the report states.

After North Dakota, the report says the highest workplace fatality rates, in order of number of deaths were found in Wyoming (9.5), West Virginia (8.6), Alaska (7.9) and New Mexico (6.7).