Construction Workplace Injuries Down in 2008
The construction industry's jobsite injury rate dipped in 2008, its fifth-consecutive annual decline, the Labor Dept.'s Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. Construction's rate of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses decreased last year to 4.7 cases per 100 full-time workers, from 5.4 in 2007.
BLS's latest annual workplace injuries and illnesses report, released Oct. 29, also shows that the overall rate for U.S. private industry fell in 2008, to 3.9 cases per 100 workers, compared with a 4.2 rate the year before.
| 2008 | 4.7 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 5.4 | ||
| 2006 | 5.9 | ||
| 2005 | 6.3 | ||
| 2004 | 6.4 | ||
| 2003 | 6.8 | ||
| Note: Pre-2003 data based on different classification system Source: U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics | |||
Construction's 2008 rate was lower than the levels for manufacturing and education-health services, both of which recorded a 5.0 rate. But construction's rate was higher than the overall national level and the those for such other sectors as trade-transportation-utilities (4.4) and natural resources-mining (4.1).
