By There are a lot of dangerous jobs out there such as being a firefighter, policemen, coal miner, lobster fishermen, or in my case serving in the military. However I was surprised to find out that none of these jobs were the nation’s most dangerous job and I’m sure you all will be as surprised as I was to find out what it was:
Next time you can’t get a cell phone signal in the middle of town, put your problem in perspective: New figures show that the deadliest job in America now goes to the men and women who construct, upgrade, and repair cell phone towers.
According to a story in this week’s RCR Wireless News (no online link yet), building and climbing towers (which can be hundreds of feet tall) is more dangerous than ranching, fishing, logging, and even ironworking. The fatality rate is currently 183.6 deaths per 100,000 workers. [Yahoo Tech]
Incredible, I had no idea cell phone construction and repair was so dangerous. Anyone know how much money these guys are paid?
3:44 pm on July 9th, 2008 1
My friend does this job. Starting pay is around $15/hr, and he gets $20/hr since he has about 3 years experience.
2:47 pm on July 10th, 2008 2
I do this job The pay any where 15-30$ an hour depending on experince and job title. Also we can spend up to 10 hours on a tower
10:55 pm on July 10th, 2008 3
It seems like you can make some pretty decent money working this job. Is it as dangerous as claimed?
7:22 pm on July 11th, 2008 4
Its sort of a function of whom you work for. Some places are a little more soft on the safety issue than others. If you climb the towers, as long as you dont suffer from vertigo you seem to be okay – you have equipment that 'ties you off' so that if you slip you dont take the big plunge. There is a lot of travel with the typical company and it puts stress on relationships. It's a sort of modern day version of being a cowboy.