Occupational fatality rate continues to decline

One fatality is too many, but there’s good news from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): the U.S. workplace fatality rate set a record low in 2013, dropping to 3.3 deaths for every 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. This is the lowest since 2006.

In announcing the statistics, BLS noted that private construction had the highest count of fatal injuries in 2013 (828), but the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector had the highest fatal work injury rate.

ON DEMAND: A discussion of new data on trends in falls and updated resources from CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training and the OSHA-NIOSH-CPWR National Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction.

Since the creation of OSHA, electrical safety in the U.S. has focused on compliance with regulations and industry standards, including NFPA 70E, helping decrease electrical fatalities in the U.S.