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Farmers, Fishermen And Lumberjacks Are Workers Most Likely To Commit Suicide

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A new study has released the results of the professions most likely to kill themselves, and what’s on the top are some surprising jobs.

According to researchers, American workers at the highest risk for committing suicide are farmers, lumberjacks and fishermen – occupations described as manual labor where the worker is generally in isolation and faces an unsteady source of income. Other professions with high suicide risks were carpenters, miners, electricians and people in construction work, with mechanics a close runner-up, reports The Washington Post.

The study likewise found that dentists, doctors, and other health-care workers had an 80% lower suicide rate compared to those in the top three. The lowest rate was among educators, teachers and librarians.

According to the researchers, factors contributing to these high suicide rates may include stressful work environments, work-home imbalances, socioeconomic disparity, lower educational levels, lower income and lack of access to health care services.

Conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study is said to be the biggest body of research to compare suicide rates across occupations. However, it is not comprehensive, as it only looked at data from 17 states and only about 12,300 of the 40,000-plus deaths reported in 2012.

In the same year, suicide was ranked as the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. With an increase from 13.3% to 21.1% between 2000 to 2012 in persons ages 16 years old and above, suicide was and is a consistent problem. The CDC sought to inform suicide prevention efforts through this study.

Because of these limitations, the CDC researchers were only able to calculate death rates for general occupation categories, not specific jobs. The complete list can be found on the CDC website, but the highest on the list per 100,000 deaths are:

Farmers, fishermen, lumberjacks, other workers in agriculture or forestry: 85
Carpenters, miners, electricians, construction workers: 53
Mechanics, workers in installation, maintenance and repair: 48
Factory and production workers: 35
Architects and engineers: 32

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