The construction industry’s nonfatal injury and illness rate—a key construction safety indicator—edged down last year, though the total number of those incidents rose, the Labor Dept. has reported.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest annual report on nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses, released on Oct. 27, shows that private-sector construction posted a rate of 3.5 such “recordable incidents” per 100 full-time-equivalent workers last year, a slight improvement over 2014’s 3.6. (View report here. See Table 1, p. 6 for private-sector construction rates.)