Workplace suicides surge by 28 percent

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Labor Department says the number of workplace suicides increased by 28 percent last year.

The rise in suicides came as the agency reported the overall number of workers who died on the job fell by 12 percent.

The 5,071 overall workplace fatalities recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2008 was the lowest number since the agency began tracking the data in 1992. That number includes 251 suicides, however.

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Here's another distressing impact of the economic recession. Workplace suicides rose 28 percent in 2008 from the year before even though 10 percent fewer workers died in workplace accidents than in the prior year, the U.S. Labor Department reports.

Agency economists blamed the economic downturn for the decline in the rate of fatal accidents, with the crash in housing leading to the rate of deadly injuries to construction workers dropping by double the rate for workers generally; it was 20 percent lower.

Still, the rise in the suicide rate, likely also attributable to the stresses of lay-offs, reduced work hours and other economic fall out, was troubling. As was the increased rate of fatal work injuries among 16 and 17 year-old workers. There were 23 in 2008. That increase was slight, less than or equal to a 0.5 percent rise over 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/08/workplace_suicides_rose_28_pc.html

Makes sense, but I must admit, I do not profess to know what goes thru a workplace suicide's mind.