Benefits August 22, 2006

Survey Looks at Most Dangerous Jobs for Teens

August 22, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The jobs most likely to end in injury for teen workers are in lumber mills, lumber yards, manufacturing and gas stations, according to a recent survey.
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The survey of 6,810 teens was conducted by Kristina Zierold, assistant professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Henry Anderson, chief medical officer of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health.

Of half of the nearly 7,000 teens surveyed, 514 of them had been injured on the job. The report, published in the American Journal of Health Behavior, also found that that 150, or 2.2%, of the teens were injured severely enough that activities at home, work, or school were affected for more than three days as a result, and 97, or 1.4%, of them filed for workers’ compensation.

The survey found that the jobs posing the most risk to teen workers were in:

  • Lumber mills, 51%
  • Lumber yards, 40%
  • Manufacturing, 37%
  • Gas Stations, 36%
  • Someone else’s farm, 36%
  • Construction, 30%

The survey also went on to rank the most common jobs for teens:

  • Restaurants and fast food, 16.6%
  • Babysitting and lawn care, 14.0%
  • The family business or family farm, 9.4%
  • Grocery stores, 4.6%
  • Department stores, 2.2%
  • Construction, 1.9%

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