December 14, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Multiple-fatality rate highest in government

At 22 percent of the total, all levels of government claimed a larger share of work-related multiple-fatalities than any private-sector industry in 1995-99.

Multiple-fatality occupational injuries, by industry, percent distribution, 1995-99
[Chart data—TXT]

The transportation and public utilities industry had the next highest multiple-fatality injury percentage at 18 percent. Both the construction and services industries had shares of 11 percent, followed by manufacturing and agriculture, forestry, and fishing at 10 percent each and retail trade at 9 percent.

These data are from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program. To learn more, see "Work-related multiple-fatality incidents," by Dino Drudi and Mark Zak, in the October 2004 issue of the Monthly Labor Review.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED