Workplace Safety and Industrial Accidents in Korea: Forecasting Fatalities for 2018-2019

Workplace safety is every workers’ basic human right that have to be exercised for the well- being and survival of the employees. Among OECD countries, Korea has the highest fatality rate in workplace. Numerous studies have been conducted on this issue but majority of them were focused on diagnosis of the causes only after the accidents occur. This study analyzes historical workplace fatality data to forecast the industrial accident patterns of the upcoming two years, so that preventive measures to decrease fatality in workplace can be discussed before they happen. Four different forecasting methods are applied and decomposition method produce the least amount of error terms. Result of analysis shows that, during 2018 and 2019, even though there will be a very slight decrease, patterns of industrial accident in Korea are expected to remain similar with previous years. Discussion on more initiatives for accelerating the decreasing trend of industrial accidents in workplace is presented.Keywords: Workplace safety, occupational accident, forecasting fatality of industrial accident, industrial accident in Korea, labor force management in Korea