April 18, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Highest risk of falls in construction
Workers in the
construction industry faced the highest risk for fatal workplace falls in
1997. The incidence rate for fatal workplace falls in the construction
industry was 4.9 cases per 100,000 workers, about 10 times the
overall rate of 0.5.
[Chart data—TXT]
Workers in agriculture, forestry, and fishing experienced the second
highest risk for fatal falls at 1.8, and mining workers, the third highest
at 0.8.
The risk of fatal falls increased in construction, and in agriculture,
forestry, and fishing between 1992 and 1997. During this period, the
incidence rate for fatal falls increased from 4.2 to 4.9 in construction,
and from 1.4 to 1.8 in agriculture, forestry, and fishing. The overall
rate held steady at 0.5 cases per 100,000 workers.
These data are products of the BLS Safety
and Health Statistics program.
Learn more in "Workplace Falls" (PDF
86K), by Timothy Webster in the
Spring 2000 issue of Compensation and Working Conditions.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
.
Read more »