How Safe is a Career in Woodworking?
An SBWI instructor sharpening a tool while wearing eye protection.
How safe is a career in woodworking?
Woodworking is a very safe career, even compared to white collar careers that are often considered ‘risk-free.’
Woodworking involves tools that look intimidating — table saws, routers, jointers — but the data tells a different story. A tool that looks dangerous can still be relatively safe in practice, with proper training and controls. Furthermore, a physically active career can help guard against mental and physical health issues that are present in white collar professions.
Here’s where woodworking stood in the national total of 5,486 workplace fatalities in the U.S. in 2022, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) fatal injury counts:
Drivers: 21.84%
Production Workers: 4.89%
Mechanics: 2.55%
Food Service: 2.24%
Roofers: 1.91%
Electricians: 1.37%
Healthcare Workers:: 1.19%
Welders: 1.11%
Fast Food/ Counter Workers: 0.51%
Advertising/Marketing/Sales Managers 0.36%
Counselors/Social Workers/Community Specialists 0.27%
Woodworkers 0.22%
Woodworking, like all manual trades, does have non‑fatal injuries (cuts, strains), and these are higher in hobbyist settings where formal training and procedure are limited. One of the most dangerous tools in the shop is the table saw. By treating both tools and other colleagues with respect, professional woodworkers wearing proper protective equipment and following shop protocols very rarely experience life‑threatening incidents.
Exploring Health and Safety at Work
If we broaden our definition of “risk” beyond what shows up in fatality tables, we see that there are trade offs associated with physical work vs. other types of careers. In office settings, helping professionals, and the healthcare fields, health risks include hazards like:
Cardiovascular disease from a sedentary lifestyle.
Chronic back or neck pain.
Burnout and isolation.
Violence from patients or customers.
And job insecurity, especially in fields vulnerable to automation and AI.
According to stress expert Josh Briley, workers have even worked themselves “to death” in particularly toxic corporate environments. He says, “Staff (that) spend the vast majority of their day sitting in front of a computer, feeling immense pressure to perform, not sleeping or eating adequately, isolating themselves from friends and family, and obsessing over their jobs. This combination is deadly, and it is not a matter of if, but when, such workers either suffer burnout, illness or even death.” In the list above, you’ll see that advertising and sales managers suffered more fatal workplace injuries in 2022 than woodworkers.
Job Satisfaction and Skill Resilience
Studies on career satisfaction across the skilled trades is mixed. Some studies show that skilled tradespeople have high satisfaction in their work and, in particular, among their colleagues, while others studies find that skilled trade workers feel the larger culture does not value their contributions.
At SBWI, it is important to us to prepare students for a changing future. We embrace new technology and innovative thinking alongside teaching time-honored craft and wood design. Our students build foundational skills as wood workers which can translate into many different career paths. Additionally, we teach courses in business development and marketing so that students can enter the field or carve their own path as entrepreneurs.
Recap
Any way you slice it (but please, don’t) woodworking is a safe career when approached with professional training and good safety practices. Like all careers, woodworking has specific hazards, but they are visible, well-understood, and highly controllable.
Rather than being riskier than other jobs, woodworking actually ranks very low in fatal injury counts when compared with many trades and white collar roles. When taking into consideration other workplace hazards like stress and sedentary lifestyles, woodworking is a career that offers a focus on craft, physical labor, and creativity.
At SBWI, you can apply to our Wood Design program to prepare for a career in the trades. If you’re just looking to explore woodworking, taking a short course is a great way to get to know us.
If you have any questions, reach out to our Vice President of Enrollment who can walk you through all the above, and more.