Construction workplace fatalities continued to rise, reaching a 12-year-high in 2019 and the industry’s fatal-injury rate also turned upward, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.
The BLS annual report on occupational deaths, released on Dec. 16, shows that private-sector construction fatalities climbed last year by about 5%, to 1,061.
BLS said that was the largest number of fatalities since 2007.
In addition, BLS figures show that construction’s fatality rate increased last year, to 9.7 per 100,000 full-time employees, from 9.5 in 2018 and 2017.
The injury rate is a key indicator of safety trends because it adjusts for annual changes in the number of workers and the volume of construction work.
