U.S. workplace homicides decline faster than overall murders

You're less likely to be killed or injured by someone else at work than you were 30 years ago.

Driving the news: 454 people were killed in workplace homicides in 2019, down 57% from 1,044 in 1992, as declines in workplace violence have outpaced the nationwide drop, according to federal data released Thursday.

• Comparatively, the number of total homicides in the U.S. fell only 24% during that period from 25,144 to 19,141 in 2019, according to the study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
• Workers are also substantially less likely to be a victim of workplace violence of any kind, with a rate of 9.2 per 1,000 in 2019, compared with 31 per 1,000 in 1994, the earliest that datapoint was available.

Yes, but: Workplace homicides increased 11% from 2014 to 2019.

Between the lines: Of workplace homicides in 2019, 80% were shootings.

What to watch for: How the work-from-home revolution or a recent uptick in violence affects these trends.