One seemingly ordinary job has gotten much more deadly over the past 10 years, federal data shows

(NEXSTAR) – Logging, hunting and mining are all dangerous jobs (at least relatively speaking), and the reasons may seem obvious. But what about landscaping?

More groundskeepers and landscapers have been dying on the job, according to a MoneyGeek analysis of federal labor data. The occupation’s fatal injury rate went from 13 per 100,000 workers in 2014 to 21 per 100,000 in 2024.

The steady increase has made it one of the 10 most dangerous jobs in America, MoneyGeek found, a few points behind trucking and construction. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 239 grounds maintenance workers were killed by work injuries in 2024.

In a work safety fact sheet from 2008, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said there were most commonly using tools or machinery to trim or cut down trees when they were killed. Operating a vehicle or piece of transportation equipment was another common activity that led to a fatal injury.

In the more recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by MoneyGeek, deaths were pretty evenly split between transportation incidents, falls, and contact with heavy equipment. Heat exposure is an increasingly significant source of fatal injury.

Other jobs that have gotten more dangerous between 2014 and 2024 include security guards and carpenters, though their injury and death rates are low enough to land them outside the top 10.

The 10 most dangerous jobs in America are:

Which jobs are getting safer? The analysis found pilots and flight engineers saw the biggest drop in fatal injuries between 2014 and 2024. Electricians, farmers, ranchers and power-line installers also saw substantial improvement.