BLS: RECESSION’S IMPACT PUSHES
JOB FATALITIES DOWN IN 2009
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)--The recession’s impact, cutting both the employed
workforce and the number of hours worked, also pushed on-the-job fatalities down by
17% in 2009, to 4,340, from 5,214 the year before, the Labor Department reported.
The rate of deaths on the job also declined to a record low since such data was
first kept more than 30 years ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. There were 3.3
deaths on the job per 100,000 workers last year, compared to 3.7 per 100,000 in 2008.
Obama administration Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was pleased by the drop, but
again declared that one injured or dead worker on the job “is one too many.”
“While a decrease in the number of fatal work injuries is encouraging, we cannot
— and will not — relent from our continued strong enforcement of workplace safety
laws,” she said.
“As the economy regains strength and more people re-enter the workforce, the
department will remain vigilant to ensure workers are kept safe while they earn a
paycheck. After all, as I’ve said before, no job is a good job unless it is also safe.”
BLS warned the 2009 total is preliminary, noting final revised figures -- usually
released in about six months -- add an average of 156 fatalities to the rolls every year.
Fatal on-the-job injuries declined in states, industries and sectors across the
board, with few exceptions. Numerically, an exception was Texas, where deaths rose
by 3.6%. It shot far past California for first place among the states in deaths on the job.
Oregon, with a 20% increase, to 66, was one of 10 other states where fatal job injuries
rose. The biggest percentage hike was in New Mexico (+35%).
Even those industries which traditionally have the greatest numbers of fatally
injured workers saw big drops in fatal occupational injuries. Those industries included
transportation and materials moving (-28% to 579), truckers (-32%), and protective
service workers, such as Fire Fighters (-21%).
Construction still led all occupations in fatal occupational injuries, with 607 in
2009, and fatalities rose among electricians, plumbers, and carpenters. But the overall
number of construction worker fatalities dropped by 16%, on top of a 19% decline the
year before. Construction laborers -- who have more injuries than other construction
workers -- saw fatalities drop by 7%, to 224, in 2009.
(continued)
Press Associates, Inc. (PAI) -- 8/20/2010
(fatalities, cont. -2)
But the jobless rate among construction workers headed towards 20% in 2009
and has stayed high, accounting for the drop in fatalities. “Economic conditions may
explain much of this decline with total hours worked having declined 17% in construction
in 2009, after a decline of 10% the year before,” BLS said.
Deaths from occupational injuries declined in California by 35%, from 465 in 2008
to 301 last year. They also declined in 39 other states. Others included Illinois
(-30%, to 135 in 2009), Indiana (-14%, to 123), Michigan (-26%, to 93), Ohio (-21%,
to 132) Minnesota (-8%, to 60), Missouri (-4%, to 142) and New York (-14%, to 184).
Virtually all of New York state’s decline was in New York City, where deaths dropped by
27, or 30%, to 63. Texas’ on-the-job fatal injuries rose to 480 in 2009, from 463 in 2008.
One of other few exceptions was the federal government, where fatal
occupational injuries rose by 7% from 2008 to 2009, to 116. That’s because of 21%
more fatalities, to 69, “among the resident military” BLS said.
Deaths among foreign-born Latino workers dropped 22%, to 680, compared to a
9% drop among native-born Hispanic-named workers. Still, one of every six workers
killed on the job was Latino.
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