Drop in Work Safety Inspectors to Undermine Enforcement Efforts

The nation’s top workplace safety regulator won’t be able to proactively enforce its rules this year as it grapples with a significant loss in safety inspectors, former agency officials say.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration had 736 safety inspectors as of June 2025, a loss of more than 100 across Biden’s last year and the first six months of the second Trump administration, according to the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General.

The agency anticipates that it, along with its state partners, will have approximately 1,720 inspectors covering 144 million workers in 2026—which translates to about one inspector for every 84,000 workers, according to the OIG’s report. The lack of available inspectors “can lead to fewer inspections, diminished enforcement in high-risk industries and, ultimately, greater risk of fatalities, injuries, or compromised health for workers,” the report warned.

Attorneys predict that OSHA’s priorities will have to shift from pursuing safety inspections associated with known hazards before they cause accidents to more-restrained enforcement that focuses on responding to fatalities, complaints, and accidents.

“The cut in inspectors will mean OSHA will have to shift to a more reactive approach,” said Jordan Barab, who served as deputy assistant secretary for OSHA during the Obama administration.

The loss of safety inspectors also follows last year’s cuts in the DOL’s workforce. More than 2,000 workers left the DOL in 2025, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

The DOL exempted employees from OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration from the deferred resignation program, which was responsible for the bulk of the agency’s downsizing, according to a document from the department obtained by Bloomberg Law at the time.

Attrition, budgetary constraints, and changes in political administrations—among other things—all typically contribute to the varying staff counts tied to the number of safety inspectors, according to former OSHA officials.

The Trump administration maintains that it continues to maximize its resources to the greatest extent possible. “During the Biden administration, in January 2023, OSHA instituted a hiring freeze for inspectors, which decreased the numbers,” a department spokesperson said. “Since that time, OSHA has lost additional inspectors due to natural attrition.”

The agency had 878 inspectors at the close of fiscal year 2023, a slight decline attributed to budgetary restraints following a hiring surge the year prior.

High-Hazard Inspections

The drop in safety inspectors will curtail the agency’s ability to conduct more targeted inspections of high hazards industries like manufacturing, warehousing, and construction this year, potentially erasing OSHA’s recent progress in reducing workplace injuries and illnesses.

OSHA carried out 17,170 programmed inspections in fiscal year 2024, according to the latest OSHA inspection data available. That’s an 8% increase from the year before, and puts the number of planned inspections on par with ones responding to employee complaints, called unprogrammed inspections.

“Even though there are these emphasis programs out there, those may fall down to the bottom of the pile,” Peter Vassalo, senior counsel for Littler Mendelson PC, said. “Just the chances of you getting some sort of random inspection are probably less so.”

When OSHA shifts from proactive to reactive enforcement, employers face upfront pressure to prevent hazards, which can lead to uneven compliance, higher injury risks, and greater long-term costs from incidents, lawsuits, and worker turnover.

Phillip Russell, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins who represents construction employers, said the agency still hasn’t established a clear focus on properly targeting its enforcement of high hazards like roofing in construction.

“David Keeling just got in that job back in November and I haven’t seen anything from him yet at all,” said Russell, referring to the current assistant secretary for OSHA. “From a compliance perspective, from an enforcement perspective, we just really haven’t heard from him at all.”

Priority Shift

OSHA’s authority stays the same under any administration, but its priorities often shift.

Under the Trump administration, OSHA has expanded penalty reductions for smaller employers and prioritized compliance assistance—where the agency helps companies meet work safety requirements—through initiatives such as its opinion letter program that offers guidance on regulations.

“To the extent that more of its staff are focused on unprogrammed inspections that are required to be conducted means that they will have fewer inspectors to do proactive inspections,” said Barab.

OIG also indicated in its report that this priority shift will impact the agency’s ability to address one of the top five leading causes of death at work in the country: workplace violence.

Notably, Keeling committed to issuing a regulation to address workplace violence. However, any substantial progress on rulemaking for it soon is unlikely as the item still remains in the agency’s long term action plan, according to former OSHA officials.

“The IG has noted that OSHA really needs to do more work on this,” Barab said. “Using the general duty clause is very burdensome, very vulnerable to court challenge, and is just not a very effective way to address a major hazard like workplace violence.”