The accident mortality rate of construction industry workers in Korea is found to be double that of the average of the top 10 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The mortality rate for all industries, including construction, was also 1.6 times higher.

According to a report published by the Korea Construction Industry Institute on the 17th, the accident mortality rate per 10,000 workers in the construction industry in Korea for 2023 is 1.59, the highest among the top 10 economies in the OECD. This means that approximately 1.6 workers per 10,000 construction workers die due to accidents annually.

On the morning of the 5th, officials from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the National Disaster Safety Research Institute, the Daegu Regional Environment Agency, the Daegu Employment and Labor Agency, the National Forensic Service, the police, the fire department, and the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation (KESCO) are conducting a joint inspection at the scene of the fire in the Chaesin Industrial Complex in Yeongcheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do. An explosion and fire that occurred at a chemical raw material manufacturing factory in the complex on the 3rd resulted in 1 death and 3 serious injuries./News1

Following Korea, Canada (1.08), France (0.97), the United States (0.96), Italy (0.92), Spain (0.72), Japan (0.68), Australia (0.34), Germany (0.29), and the United Kingdom (0.24) had the highest mortality rates. The average mortality rate among the top 10 countries is 0.78, which is less than half of that in Korea.

The accident mortality rate for all industries in Korea, including construction, is reported to be 0.39, about 1.6 times the average of 0.24 for the top 10 economies in the OECD. It is the second highest, following Canada (0.50).

The report noted that the construction industry is similarly high-risk compared to other industries in other countries as well. The average accident mortality rate in the construction industry among the 10 countries (0.78) reaches 3.3 times the overall industrial average (0.24).

Choi Soo-young, a researcher at the Korea Construction Industry Institute, said, "The construction industry has a high proportion of outdoor work, many older workers, and complex processes, leading to many risk factors," adding that "it is necessary to strengthen a tailored safety management system suited to the industrial characteristics and to reduce the safety level gap with more safety investment than other industries."

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