Workers safer because there are no jobs

From the NY Times:

Working in New York City was less dangerous last year than at any time in nearly two decades — unless you were a cabdriver — the federal Labor Department said on Wednesday.

Only 63 people died from injuries suffered at work in the city in 2009, the lowest total since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking workplace fatalities in 1992. The decline coincided with a deep slump in the construction industry, which had been plagued by fatal falls in the preceding years.

From 2006 through 2008, more workers died from falling off buildings, ladders and scaffolding than from homicides. But last year, the number of people murdered at work in the city rose to 28 — from 26 in 2008 — and accounted for 44 percent of all unnatural deaths on the job. The numbers of suicides at work rose by 50 percent, to 12 from 8 in 2008.

Just eight workers fell to their deaths last year, down from 29 in 2008 and more than 30 in 2006, said Michael L. Dolfman, the regional commissioner of labor statistics.