Why This Matters

Outdoor workers are on the front lines of occupational hazards related to extreme weather and climate change. As air pollution worsens, wildfire seasons lengthen, and heat wave events intensify, workers whose jobs require them to be outside face growing health and safety risks. Even one severe exposure—like extreme heat or heavy wildfire smoke—can cause lasting health problems. Repeated moderate exposures, such as heat above 80°F, can also raise the risk of emergency department visits, heart and lung issues, and occupational injury. Yet protections for outdoor workers in the United States remain uneven across states, and most workers lack safeguards against these increasingly common exposures, with stalled federal action leaving gaps unaddressed nationwide.

What We Found

In this report, we combine federal air quality, wildfire, and heat wave data with new estimates of the size and geographic distribution of the outdoor workforce to identify where outdoor workers face common outdoor exposure risks. We also outline federal and state policy options to strengthen workplace protections for outdoor workers.

Our key findings include the following:

• Outdoor work is common nationally. About 1 in 5 US workers (20.6 percent) are in occupations likely to involve regular outdoor exposure.
• Outdoor work is unevenly distributed by state workforces. States with high shares of outdoor workers per total state workforce include Wyoming (29.1 percent), North Dakota (27.0 percent), and Montana (26.2 percent); the lowest shares are found in more urbanized states like Massachusetts (16.5 percent), New York (17.5 percent), and Connecticut (17.8 percent).
• Poor outdoor air quality is widespread. In 2023, over 8 in 10 outdoor workers (83.1 percent) lived in states with greater than 25 percent of days classified as “poor air quality” (the share of days measured as moderate to hazardous air quality), increasing the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular harm.
• Almost 2 in 5 outdoor workers are exposed to wildfire risk. Nearly two-fifths (38.4 percent) of outdoor workers lived in one of the 14 states with elevated wildfire risk (which approximately corresponds to the top quartile of counties nationally for wildfire likelihood and potential impact, based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency risk scale), adding smoke-related air quality threats to already high baseline pollution in many regions.
• Almost 2 in 3 outdoor workers are at risk from dangerous heat waves. Nearly two-thirds (65.1 percent) of outdoor workers lived in the 25 states and the District of Columbia with elevated heat wave risk (which approximately corresponds to the top quartile of counties of heat wave likelihood and potential consequences, based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency risk scale), compounding the threat of job-related injury and illness.