Construction employment, deaths increase since end of recession: report

Silver Spring, MD – Construction worker fatalities have increased 16 percent since 2011, outpacing an increase in construction employment during the same time period, according to a report released Oct. 26 by the Center for Construction Research and Training, also known as CPWR.

Employment in the construction industry dropped during the economic recession of 2007-2009, but the industry has been rebounding, the report states. In 2011, 9.1 million workers were employed in the construction industry and 781 died on the job. Three years later, construction employment rose about 8 percent to 9.8 million and worker deaths increased to a preliminary count of 908.

Although the trend of declining fatality rates has more or less remained constant since 2003, the preliminary rate in 2014 rose to 9.3 deaths per 100,000 workers from 9.0 in 2011.

The No. 1 cause of death in the construction industry has been falls, and both the rate and number of fall-related deaths have grown from 2010 to 2014 after a sharp decline between 2007 and 2010.

Data presented in the report comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.