WASHINGTON (Bloomberg)—U.S. workplace deaths fell 17% in 2009 to a record low on a decline in construction fatalities, as unemployment surged to the highest level in a quarter century, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday.

There were 4,340 deaths across all industries, compared with 5,214 a year earlier. Fatalities among private construction firms dropped 16% in 2009, the bureau said in a statement.

Workplace injuries have been falling for more than a decade, according to the National Council of Compensation Insurance. Workers compensation insurers that are facing lower sales and rising medical costs may benefit from a decline in job-related accidents as U.S. payrolls continue to shrink. New claims for unemployment jumped 500,000 in the week ending Aug. 14.

“Economic factors played a major role in the fatal work injury decrease in 2009,” the bureau said in the statement.

U.S. workers' compensation insurance, an industry tied closely to payrolls, posted sales that fell for the third straight year as the economic slump curbed employment, according to the NCCI. The jobless rate was 9.5% in July.

Workplace suicides declined 9.9% to 237 last year from a record 263. More people killed themselves at work in 2008 than in any other year since the government started keeping records.

In New York State, 184 workplace deaths occurred compared with 213 a year earlier. Job-related fatalities in New York City fell to 63 from 90 in 2008.

Transportation accidents were the most frequent cause of worker deaths for the second year. The number of fatalities involving cars, trucks, airplanes, trains and other vehicles was 1,682, compared with 2,130 in 2008. About 20% of the deaths were on highways.

Fatalities in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting fell to 551 from 672 a year earlier. Deaths in crop production dropped to 278 from 304.

Copyright 2010 Bloomberg