Workplace Fatalities Decline Significantly in 2008

Key findings of the 2008 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries:

 - Fatal work injuries in the private construction sector in 2008 declined by 20 percent from the updated  2007 total, twice the all-worker decline of 10 percent.

- Fatal workplace falls, which had risen to a series high in 2007, also declined by 20 percent in 2008.

- Workplace suicides were up 28 percent to a series high of 251 cases in 2008, but workplace homicides declined 18 percent in 2008. 

- The number and rate of fatal work injuries among 16 to 17 year-old workers were higher in 2008. 

- Fatal occupational injuries involving Hispanic or Latino workers in 2008 were 17 percent lower than in 2007.    

-       Fatalities among non-Hispanic Black or African American workers were down 16 percent.

- The number of fatal workplace injuries in farming, fishing, and forestry occupations rose 6 percent   in 2008 after declining in 2007.

   - Transportation incidents, which accounted for approximately two-fifths of all the workplace fatalities in 2008, fell 13 percent from the previous series low of 2,351 cases reported in 2007.