Workplace suicides up 28%, US says

August 21, 2009|Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Workplace suicides surged 28 percent last year, the Labor Department said yesterday, as anxious workers dealt with a struggling economy and watched colleagues depart in a rash of layoffs.

At the same time, the agency’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said the total number of workers who died on the job from any cause fell by 10 percent.

The 5,071 workplace fatalities recorded in 2008 was the lowest number since the agency began tracking the data in 1992. That number includes 251 suicides, the highest number since official reporting began.

Labor officials did not seek to explain the sudden increase, and a spokesman said the agency plans to research it more extensively.

The agency says economic factors could be responsible for the overall decline in fatalities.

Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said the numbers suggest the struggling economy is taking a toll on worker morale.

“Those who are at places where there have been substantial layoffs are trying to cope with survivor’s guilt,’’ Chaison said.

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