A new national study of suicide rates across Australian occupations has found blue-collar male workers remain significantly over-represented among suicide deaths, prompting researchers to call for greater attention to occupation-specific risk factors.
The study, led by RMIT University and the University of Melbourne and published today in BMJ Public Health, analysed more than 20,000 suicide deaths among employed Australians aged 15 to 64 between 2001 and 2022.
Described as the first study of its kind, it revealed a strong and persistent pattern: men working in certain occupations die by suicide at markedly higher rates than men in other fields.
The occupations with the highest rates tend to share common traits.
They are typically manual, physically demanding and frontline in nature.
Suicide rates among male construction and mining labourers were found to be three to four times higher than in most other industries.
Machine and plant operators, farm and forestry workers, and automotive and engineering trades workers also recorded elevated rates.
Slightly lower but still high rates were seen in health, media and arts, hospitality, protective services and office support roles.
Study senior author, RMIT Associate Professor Tania King, said the findings pointed to clear patterns across occupational groups, with little meaningful improvement over the past two decades.
“Our research shows suicide risk isn’t random: there is clear patterning of suicide risk across different occupations,” she said.
“And we particularly see this when specialisation, gender and certain working conditions collide.”
Researchers noted that workers in high-risk industries are often exposed to hazardous environments, long and irregular hours, physical strain and limited control over their work.
These pressures, ranging from injury-prone tasks to poor conditions and low autonomy, can compound stress and erode mental wellbeing over time.
King said that while some industries have made progress, many have not shifted at all in 20 years.
“That tells us the problem is at least partly due to the systems they’re working in,” she said.
The study’s authors argue this points to an urgent need for structural, industry-specific action to address suicide risk in the workplace.
The research also examined how risk differs by gender across all 43 occupational groups covered in the study.
While women overall continue to face much lower suicide rates than men, some industries showed elevated risk for women compared to other female workers.
In occupations such as health professionals and mobile plant operators, women faced more than double the suicide risk seen in other jobs.
Notably, the pattern of higher rates among manual frontline workers observed in men did not hold for women, with risk instead concentrated in a mix of professional and manual occupations, including health professionals, automotive and engineering trades, and mobile plant operators.
University of Melbourne researcher and study first author Dr Humaira Maheen said that despite national suicide rates remaining largely steady over the past decade, only six occupational groups showed meaningful declines, generally in more specialised roles with lower baseline risk to begin with.
These included business, HR and marketing professionals, automotive and engineering trades workers, other technicians and trades workers, sales representatives and agents, store persons, and cleaners and laundry workers.
King said the findings give prevention efforts a clear evidence base to target the occupational groups most at risk.
She pointed to programs such as MATES in Construction, which use peer-led support to build safer environments in high-pressure industries.
“Real change will require industry-level reform,” she said.
If this article has raised concerns for you, or you’re worried about someone you know, support is available: Lifeline (13 11 14), MensLine Australia (1300 78 99 78), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636), and the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467).
