September 26, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

September 11 raises fatal work injury toll in 2001

A total of 8,786 fatal work injuries were reported in 2001, including fatalities related to the September 11th terrorist attacks.

[Chart data—TXT]

A total of 2,886 work-related fatalities resulted from the events of September 11th. The events of that day killed persons from a wide range of backgrounds—janitors to managers, native and foreign-born workers, and the young and the old—who were at work in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, were on business travel or were crew aboard the commercial airliners that crashed in Pennsylvania, New York City, and Virginia, or were involved in rescue duties.

Excluding the fatalities on September 11th, the overall workplace fatality count of 5,900 in 2001 was down slightly (less than 1 percent) from 2000. Total employment also declined slightly in 2001. As a result, the occupational fatality rate, 4.3 fatalities per 100,000 employed, was the same as it had been in 2000.

These data are a product of the BLS Safety and Health Statistics Program. Additional information is available from "National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2001," news release USDL 02-541.