NU Online News Service, Aug. 25, 3:30 p.m. EDT
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said fatal workplace injuries are at the lowest point they have been since surveys were first conducted, but unemployment has played a major role.
A preliminary count of fatal injuries at work was 4,340 in 2009, down 17 percent from 5,214 in 2008, according to the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), which started in 1992.
Also in 2009, total work hours dropped 6 percent compared to a 1 percent decline in 2008 as "some industries that have historically accounted for a significant share of fatal work injuries, such as construction, experienced even larger declines in employment or hours worked," said the CFOI.
Fatal work injuries in private construction went down 16 percent following a 19 percent drop in 2008.
Despite the drop in overall fatal work injuries, workplace homicides fell just 1 percent compared with 2008, to 521. That still represents a sharp decline from a high of 1,080 in 1994.
A count of 237 workplace suicides is a 10 percent decline from 2008 but is still the second-highest amount recorded by the census. The most was 263 in 2008.
As part of the National Trends program put on annually by National Underwriter as part of the Workers' Compensation Educational Conference, experts said the recession has caused nearly a quarter of premiums in the workers' compensation market to dissolve and it has cut profitability by as much as half in the past two years as unemployment has soared.
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