The preliminary version of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) 2010National Census of FatalOccupational Injuries (CFOI) shows slightly improved numbersfor workplace fatalities last year. Although the final version willnot be released until the spring of 2012 after all statistics havebeen provided by participating governmental agencies, these initialnumbers show a total of 4,547 fatal work injuries in the U.S. in2010, slightly less than the final count of 4,551 in 2009.

This reported decrease comes despite a slight uptick in totalhours worked during 2010, in contrast to the declines in work hoursrecorded in both 2008 and 2009. Specifically, total hours workedfor wage and salary workers increased slightly in 2010, but fell bynearly 2 percent for the self-employed. A similar trend was seen inworkplace fatalities for these two groups: The number of fatalinjuries among wage and salary workers increased by 2 percent in2010; the number of fatal work injuries among the self-employeddeclined by 6 percent to 999 fatalities, more than the decline intheir hours worked and the lowest annual total since the fatalitycensus was first conducted in 1992.

In its media release, the agency noted other keypreliminary findings:

• Fatal work injuries in the private mining industry rose from 99in 2009 to 172 in 2010, an increase of 74 percent. The fatal workinjury rate for mining increased from 12.4 per 100,000full-time equivalents in 2009 to 19.9 per 100,000 in 2010. Themultiple-fatality incidents at the Upper Big Branch Mine and theDeepwater Horizon oil rig are included in these figures.
• Fatal work injuries in the private construction sector declinedby 10 percent from 2009 to 2010 and are down nearly 40 percentsince 2006.
• Work-related fatalities resulting from fires more than doubledfrom 53 in 2009 to 109 in 2010, the highest count since2003.
• Workplace homicides declined 7 percent in 2010 to the lowesttotal ever recorded by the fatality census.
• The number of fatal workplace injuries among police officersincreased by 40 percent, from 96 in 2009 to 134 in 2010.
• Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia reportedhigher numbers of fatal work injuries in 2010 than in 2009, while23 states reported lower numbers.

In its profile of worker characteristics, the agency revealedthat while total workplace homicides were down in 2010, workplacehomicides involving women increased by 13 percent; fatalities amongnon-Hispanic white workers rose by 2 percent.

However, significant declines were realized for other groups.The largest decline was among non-Hispanic black orAfrican-American workers, who recorded 9 percent fewer fatalitiesin 2010 after a decline of 21 percent in 2009. With the lower countin 2010, fatal work injuries among black or African-Americanworkers have decreased by more than a third (37 percent) since2007.

Fatal work injuries among Hispanic or Latino workers were down 4percent in 2010 to the lowest level since 1997. Of the 682 fatalwork injuries involving Hispanic or Latino workers, 427 (or 63percent) involved foreign-born workers. Overall, there were 774fatal work injuries involving foreign-born workers in 2010, ofwhich the greatest share (297 or 38 percent) were born inMexico.

The CFOI, part of the BLS OccupationalSafety and Health Statistics program, compiles a count of allfatal work injuries occurring in the U.S. during the calendar year.The CFOI program uses diverse state, federal, and independent datasources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries. Forthe 2010 data, over 18,000 unique source documents were reviewed aspart of the data collection process.