Among various types of American workers, it is farmers, lumberjacks and fishermen who are most likely to kill themselves, according to a large new study that shows enormous differences of suicide rates across jobs.
Dentists, doctors and other health-care professionals had an 80 percent lower suicide rate than farmers, fishermen and lumberjacks.
The lowest rate was in teachers, educators and librarians.
The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is perhaps the largest U.S. study to compare suicide rates among occupations. But it is not comprehensive. It covered only 17 states, looking at about 12,300 of the more than 40,000 suicide deaths reported in the nation in 2012.
Because of the limited data, the researchers could calculate suicide rates only for broad occupation categories, not for specific jobs.
Following are the five occupations with the highest suicide rates. The complete list can be found at cdc.gov/mmwr.
Farmers, fishermen, lumberjacks, others in forestry or agriculture: 85 per 100,000.
Carpenters, miners, electricians, construction trades: 53.
Mechanics and those who do installation, maintenance, repair: 48.
Factory and production workers: 35.
Architects, engineers: 32.