Construction is number one again in on–the–job deaths, but overall it is safer, new statistics show.

The number of construction fatalities rose nearly 3% in 2006, and construction's more than 1,200 deaths again made it the industry with the largest number of annual on–the–job fatalities, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. But the construction fatality rate went down in 2006, its second–consecutive annual decline, as the number of workers in the industry continued to climb, BLS data show.

The latest yearly BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, released Aug. 9, says that there were 1,226 workplace fatalities in the construction industry in 2006, up 2.8% from the 2005 total of 1,192.

BLS also says that construction's 2006 fatality rate was 10.8 per 100,000 workers. That's down from 11.1 in 2005 and 12.0 in 2004. The number of workers in the industry rose from 10.3 million in 2004 to 11.4 million last year.

Construction's fatality rate ranks relatively high among major sectors, but is lower than that for agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (29.6), mining (27.8) and transportation and warehousing (16.3).

The total number of U.S. workplace fatalities declined one–half percent in 2006, to 5,703 according to BLS. The bureau also said that last year's overall fatality rate of 3.9 per 100,000 workers was the lowest since it began its census in 1992. The 2005 rate was 4.0.

To view, the BLS press release on 2006 fatal occupational industries, see: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.toc.htm