Real estate workplace fatalities down 37 percent

Fatal workplace injuries in the real estate industry have fallen to the lowest level since 2005, though assaults and other violent acts accounted for a rising share of deaths last year, according to preliminary figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Thursday.In 2011, there were 40 workplace fatalities in a BLS-defined real estate industry subcategory. The subcategory includes lessors of real estate (landlords); real estate agents and brokers and others who work in brokerage offices; and those who conduct activities related to real estate, such as property managers and appraisers.The real estate subcategory is part of a more broadly defined "real estate and rental and leasing" BLS category in which there were a total of 60 fatal work injuries in 2011.The 40 real estate industry workplace injury fatalities identified by the BLS in 2011 were a decrease from 63 such fatalities in 2010 when they reached their highest level since at least 2003. Last year's fi...