Job-related fatalities fall to all-time low, data show
Work-related fatalities declined 3% in 1998 to the lowest level since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, DC, started tracking the data in 1992.
The number of work-related fatalities in the United States totaled 6,026 in 1998, down from 6,212 in 1997. That is the lowest figure for job-related fatalities since the bureau started collecting data in 1992. Much of the decline can be attributed to an 18% drop in job-related homicides, especially in the retail trade, the bureau reports. In 1998, 286 people were killed in retail jobs, compared to 395 in 1997. Since 1994, homicides have fallen 46%, the bureau reports.
The leading cause of work-related deaths continues to be highway crashes, accounting for 24% of all work-related fatalities. About 40% of those 1,431 deaths in 1998 were among truck drivers.
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