Workplace fatalities plunge 17 percent to lowest level in nearly 2 decades

Workplace deaths fall to lowest level since 1992

WASHINGTON — The Labor Department says the number of workers who died on the job fell by 17 percent last year to the lowest level in nearly two decades.

The 4,340 workplace fatalities recorded in 2009 was the smallest total since the Bureau of Labor Statistics first began tracking the data in 1992.

The agency says high unemployment and layoffs in more dangerous industries like construction played a major role in the decrease.

Workers on average logged 6 percent fewer hours last year than in 2008. Employees in construction worked 17 percent fewer hours in 2009 than the previous year.