The American workplace is getting safer.

 In 1937, the peak year for death in the workplace, 19,000 workers were killed - a rate of 43 accidental deaths for every 100,000 workers. By 1999, 5,100 workers died on the job - or 3.8 deaths per 100,000 workers. 

What accounts for this improvement? During the early 1900s, 38 percent of American workers were in agriculture. Now agriculture employs less than 3 percent of the workforce. By 1950, 25 percent of U.S. employees worked in production or manufacturing. Now less than 14 percent do. Today, at least 44 percent of all workers are in information services - gathering, processing, retrieving or analyzing information. The result : less hazardous jobs and safer working conditions. 

"Throughout America's transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society to the information/electronic age, the National Safety Council (NSC) has been a strong advocate for workplace safety and health," said NSC President Alan McMillan. "The NSC's advocacy for workers' safety helped to bring agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and others into being. The Council has worked closely with these agencies, and with labor unions and business leaders, to build a professional safety culture into the American workplace," said McMillan.

Although the numbers of workplace deaths and injuries have come down dramatically, the toll of job-related injuries remains unacceptably high. In 1999, job-related injuries cost American businesses a staggering $122.6 billion -- more than the combined profits reported by the top 17 Fortune 500 companies. As a result, corporate America has come to recognize that workplace safety is good business. Without strong workplace safety programs, these costs would be considerably higher. Building a strong corporate safety program saves money and makes businesses more profitable. And because of this awareness, today, the average American is safer on the job than at home or in public places. While 5,100 people died at work in 1999, 52,000 died in the home and community. Since 1992, the number of accidental deaths in the home and community rose 21 percent.

The recent rise in off-the-job death and injury has prompted the National Safety Council to focus more attention on identifying and attacking the causes of those injuries and deaths. "Corporate America needs to bring the same level of dedication and energy to off-the-job safety that it has shown with respect to workplace safety," said McMillan. "It is in the direct economic interest of American companies to engage in new, high level initiatives to protect the safety and health of employees and their families off the job," McMillan said.

In the past, industry has underestimated the total cost of on-the-job injuries. Medical expenses are typically the largest single cost component considered. Setbacks such as rescheduling, lost or slowed productivity, overtime for other employees, reliance on temporary replacements, and re-entry time of the injured worker add significantly to the cost of an on-the-job injury, but are frequently overlooked. And, since most of these same costs are present when an employee or a member of his or her family is injured off the job, indirect costs from off-the-job accidents are an enormous economic drain on American businesses.