South Korea's construction worker death rate highest among major OECD economies: data

In 2023, 1.59 workers out of every 10,000 died from work-related accidents, marking the highest fatality rate among the top 10 OECD economies, according to data compiled by the Construction & Economy Research Institute of Korea (CERIK).

South Korea was followed by Canada, which saw 1.08 deaths per 10,000 workers, France at 0.97, the United States 0.96, Italy 0.92, Spain 0.72 and Japan at 0.68.

The average mortality rate of the top 10 OECD economies stood at 0.78.

South Korea's overall industrial accident fatality rate, including the construction sector, was 0.39 per 10,000 workers in 2023, the second highest among the 10 largest OECD economies, according to the data.

Canada had the highest mortality rate of 0.5. Following Korea was the United States at 0.37 and France at 0.35. Britain had the lowest rate of 0.04.

Korea's tally was 1.6 times higher than the average of the top 10 countries and 9.8 times higher than that of Britain.

"Construction is a high-risk industry in terms of safety not only in South Korea but also in advanced countries," CERIK said. "To reduce accidents, the country should take a dual approach of implementing an industry-level strategy to narrow the safety gap between construction and other sectors and a national-level comprehensive strategy to raise overall industrial safety in the country."

Earlier this week, President Lee Jae Myung reiterated the need for stronger measures to prevent industrial accidents following a series of accidents at workplaces managed by major construction companies, including POSCO E&C Co. and DL Construction Co.

So far this year, four workers have died at workplaces managed by POSCO E&C, and another worker was killed at a POSCO steel mill in Gwangyang, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul. POSCO E&C is a subsidiary of POSCO, the nation's top steelmaker.

Earlier, it was reported that 12 people have died from heat-related illnesses in South Korea.