Salem, OR – An all-time low of 17 people covered by Oregon’s workers’ compensation system died in 2010, the state’s Department of Consumer and Business Services announced March 8.
The figure reflects a downward trend. Oregon had 31 workplace fatalities in 2009, 45 in 2008 and 35 in 2007, compared with an annual average of 55 in the 1990s and 81 in the 1980s, according to a DCBS press release. The statewide rate of injuries and illnesses has also fallen more than 50 percent since the 1980s.
Preliminary data (.pdf file) shows trucking, logging and manufacturing accounted for the most deaths in 2010, while construction had no fatalities.
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DCBS linked the record low, in part, to the poor economy and high unemployment rate.
