Workplace deaths in South Korea's construction industry fell nearly 20% in the first half of this year from a year earlier. Analysts attribute the decline to a combination of the government's aggressive push to cut industrial accidents and a slump in construction that has reduced both work sites and workers. Still, construction accounts for the largest share of all workplace deaths, and about seven in 10 accident deaths came from falls, entrapment and collisions — hazards known as conventional accidents.
Construction recorded 243 workplace deaths in the first half of this year, according to data submitted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to the office of Rep. Kim Wi-sang of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, on the 13th. That is down 58 deaths, or 19.3%, from 301 in the same period last year. Over the same period, the number of workers injured in construction rose 16.2% from a year earlier to 19,076, even as deaths declined.
If the current trend holds, construction deaths this year could break a three-year run of increases. Deaths in the industry rose from 486 in 2023 to 496 in 2024 and 569 last year.
The government's drive to reduce industrial accidents appears to have played some part in the decline. Workplace deaths across all industries totaled 1,049 in the first half, down 71, or 6.3%, from 1,120 in the same period last year.
The construction slump also contributed, analysts said, as fewer sites and fewer workers meant less total work. Construction orders fell 30.6% from a year earlier to 15.8 trillion won ($11.4 billion) in July, according to a monthly construction market report by the Construction and Economy Research Institute of Korea. Construction employment that month also fell 3.0% from a year earlier to 1.865 million.
The industry's high accident risk remains, however. Construction accounted for 23.2% of all workplace deaths in the first half, the highest of any industry. That works out to roughly one in every four workplace deaths occurring at a construction site.
Accidents that basic safety rules could prevent — falls, entrapment and collisions — continue to recur. In the first half, 95 construction workers died in those three conventional accidents, including 73 from falls, three from entrapment and 19 from collisions, accounting for 39.1% of all construction deaths. Counting only the 138 accident deaths, excluding 105 who died from illness, the share reaches 68.8%.
