More side-effects of the recession . . .

Latest Workplace Fatality Stats

Workplace deaths dropped 10% last year. Unfortunately, workplace suicides skyrocketed 28%.

It appears that the recession may be behind both numbers. The formulas are simple: Fewer Employees = Fewer Fatalities. More Stress = More Suicides.

Here are the latest Labor Department stats:

• Fatal workplace injuries totaled 5,071 in 2008, down 10% from 5,657 in 2007.
• The death rate per 100,000 workers also improved 10%, falling from 4.0 to 3.6.
• Construction had the highest number of fatalities (969 — a rate of 9.6 per 100,000).
• Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting had the highest death rate — 29.4 per 100,000, more than eight times the average rate.
• Workplace suicides rose 28% to 251, the largest increase ever.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story entitled Coping With a Workplace Fatality, which offers advice on what to do after a co-worker passes away. It’s worth checking out.

The Recession and HR

A recent Workforce Management survey shows that the recession is having a profound impact on HR professionals as well.

According to HR guru Dave Ulrich, many HR staffs are “stretched to the risk of burnout.” The survey bears that out: 50% of HR professionals are having trouble sleeping, 35% have considered getting out of HR and 23% have turned to alcohol, illegal drugs or other substances to cope.

Despite all that, only 9% of HR professionals practice what they preach and seek out their employee assistance program.

The Bottom Line

If you need help, please, please, please get it (and encourage others to do the same).

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 5:45 am and is filed under Recession, Workplace Fatalities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.