In 2009, 4,340 workers died on the job in the United States, according to preliminary data released Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This number is the lowest preliminary total since the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries program began in 1992 and represents more than a 16 percent decline from the 5,214 worker deaths in 2008, BLS said in a press release.
Finalized numbers of workplace deaths will be released in April, and the final number likely will increase. In the past two years, the finalized figure increased by about 3 percent from the preliminary number, according to BLS.
