Report Details Building Construction Safety Trends in 2024, Highlights 30 Percent Drop in Worker Injuries Compared to 2023
Construction Site Injuries Reached Nine-Year Low, Incidents Reached 10-Year Low, Fatalities Remained at 10-Year Low
DOB Performed Over 416,000 Inspections in 2024, Highest Number on Record, Implemented New Construction Safety Initiatives
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) Commissioner Jimmy Oddo today released DOB’s annual New York City Construction Safety Report, providing an analysis of building construction trends, safety incidents on construction sites, and enforcement actions by DOB in 2024. The report highlights the Adams administration’s work to keep New Yorkers safe on building construction sites, specifically spotlighting that worker injuries dropped by 30 percent in 2024 compared to 2023, while construction-related incidents fell by 24 percent. With these positive trends towards safer construction sites, worker injuries reached a nine-year low and construction-related incidents reached a 10-year low; additionally, worker fatalities remained at a 10-year low. This historic progress follows multiple initiatives by DOB to protect New Yorkers working on construction sites, including new oversight mandates for construction superintendents, new licensing requirements for operators of smaller crane devices, new technology to help track work site safety compliance, and more. In 2024, DOB also conducted 416,290 total field inspections – the most inspections of building construction sites since the department began tracking the critical datapoint. Finally, the report underscores the ongoing strength of the building construction industry, with initial permits for new building projects increasing by over 24 percent in 2024 compared to 2023. The annual report is designed to provide greater transparency within both city government and the construction industry.
“New Yorkers deserve safe workplaces, and that includes our city’s construction sites. Thanks to the hard work of DOB, we are making significant progress towards that goal, with inspections of construction sites at historic highs and incidents at a 10-year low,” said Mayor Adams. “Nevertheless, we know that even one death at our construction sites is unacceptable, which is why our administration will continue to implement historic safety initiatives and keep up the fight for safer construction sites across the city.”
“The progress we’ve made in reducing injuries and keeping fatalities at their lowest in close to a decade is a testament to the effectiveness of our safety initiatives, the decidedness of our inspection teams, and the buy-in from our industry partners,” said DOB Commissioner Oddo. “We are not alone in believing that every fatality and injury that occurred in 2024 was preventable. We will keep pushing relentlessly for safer work sites because even one life lost is one too many.”
The New York City Construction Safety Report draws upon a wealth of data collected by DOB throughout 2024. Data in the report show that over 98 percent of work sites did not report a single incident or injury in 2024. While incidents are exceedingly rare, the data shows that they can occur on work sites of any size and in every neighborhood across the city.
Construction-related incidents fell from 841 in 2023 to 638 in 2024, a 24 percent decrease year-over-year, while construction-related injuries fell from 692 in 2023 to 482 in 2024, a 30 percent decrease year-over-year. The report also draws specific attention to seven fatal construction worker incidents that occurred on building construction sites in 2024. While deaths on building construction sites have trended down in recent years, DOB remains committed to implementing new safety measures and driving fatality numbers as close to zero as possible.
10 Year Look Back at Construction-Related Incidents, Injuries, and Fatalities
Year | Incidents | Injuries | Fatalities |
2015 | 1,011 | 472 | 12 |
2016 | 1,162 | 603 | 12 |
2017 | 1,212 | 671 | 12 |
2018 | 1,193 | 759 | 13 |
2019 | 960 | 594 | 14 |
2020 | 796 | 502 | 8 |
2021 | 712 | 505 | 9 |
2022 | 752 | 554 | 11 |
2023 | 841 | 692 | 7 |
2024 | 638 | 482 | 7 |
DOB regularly interacts with construction and development industry professionals through field inspections, enforcement actions, and educational outreach efforts. The report shows that DOB conducted 416,290 total inspections in 2024, the highest number of inspections on record in a calendar year. DOB also spearheaded several new safety initiatives in 2024 to increase compliance with existing regulations and improve safety outcomes. These include new oversight mandates for construction superintendents, new licensing requirements for operators of smaller crane devices and hoisting machines, and technological advances to track work site safety compliance.
To spread the word about these new initiatives, DOB stepped up communications with the construction and development industry, issuing construction advisories directly to work sites to alert them to recent safety failure trends and scheduling regular sit-down meetings between industry groups and construction contractors to address safety concerns.
Finally, the report highlights increased construction activity in New York City throughout 2024, with total initial permits for new building projects increasing by over 24 percent compared to 2023. The 103,592 initial construction permits issued by DOB in 2024 is the highest in five years.
Thanks to recent improvements in DOB’s digital infrastructure, the city can assemble granular data points from construction projects across the city, spot trends, and predict potential problems before they occur. DOB regularly utilizes this data to inform enforcement strategies and efficiently allocate resources across the city’s 1.1 million buildings.
In 2025, DOB will establish a new enforcement unit to utilize this data and proactively inspect potentially dangerous buildings. The new unit, which was created with legislation from the New York City Council and $5 million from the Adams administration, will use predictive analytics to identify derelict buildings and unsafe contractors, prioritizing them for inspection to keep New Yorkers safe.
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