--- title: Workplace Suicide Rate Grows: These Professions Are Most at Risk description: Protective service workers like police are at more than 3 times great a risk of workplace suicide than those in the general population. canonical: https://time.com/3747582/workplace-suicide/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-17T20:30:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:13:06.536Z article:section: Health og:title: Workplace Suicide Is a Small But Growing Risk: Study og:description: Protective service workers like police are at more than 3 times great a risk of workplace suicide than those in the general population. og:url: https://time.com/3747582/workplace-suicide/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Workplace Suicide Is a Small But Growing Risk: Study twitter:description: Protective service workers like police are at more than 3 times great a risk of workplace suicide than those in the general population. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Workplace Suicide Is a Small But Growing Issue: Study > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 17, 2015 8:30 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 17, 2015 8:30 PM UTC People with protective services job, like police and firemen, are at more than three times great a risk of workplace suicide than people in the general population, according to a new [study](http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2814%2900722-3/abstract) in the _American Journal of Preventive Medicine._ Workplace suicide represents a small fraction of the total number of U.S. suicide deaths—more than 40,000 Americans died of suicide in the U.S. in 2013, on par with traffic accidents deaths. Still, the rate of work place suicide is rising across the board, the study found. “Occupation can largely define a person’s identity, and psychological risk factors for suicide, such as depression and stress, can be affected by the workplace,” said Hope M. Tiesman, an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in a statement. The paper, which evaluated 2003-2010 data from a occupational injury database, found that more than 1,700 people died while on the job during the eight-year period. The study did not include data from active military personnel. Farming and related professions fall directly behind protective service workers in workplace suicide risk, followed by maintenance workers and transportation laborers like truck drivers. Access to the means to commit suicide at work was among the most important factors that explain the disparate suicide risk, researchers said. Firearms were involved in 84% of workplace suicides of protective service workers. Firearms are used in about half of overall suicides. Frequent exposure to high-stress situations may also contribute to the high rate of workplace suicide for these particular professions, researchers said. **Read More**: [This Bill Could Help Reduce the Risk of Veteran Suicide](http://time.com/3694053/veteran-suicide/) The results suggest that policymakers should pay closer attention to addressing mental health issues in the workplace, researchers said. “Suicide is a multifactorial outcome and therefore multiple opportunities to intervene in an individual’s life—including the workplace—should be considered,” said Tiesman. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3747582/workplace-suicide/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3747582/workplace-suicide/"},"headline":"Workplace Suicide Is a Small But Growing Issue: Study","datePublished":"2015-03-17T20:30:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:13:06.536Z","description":"40,000 Americans die of suicide in the U.S. every year","url":"https://time.com/3747582/workplace-suicide/","keywords":["Mental Health/Psychology","Suicide","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-healthpsychology/","name":"Mental Health/Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3747582/workplace-suicide/","name":"Workplace Suicide Is a Small But Growing Issue: Study"}}]}] ```