Increase in suicide rate shows site workers still ‘need to be reached’ A rise in the number of suicides over a four-year period shows vulnerable people in the industry are “not being reached”, experts have warned. A study by Glasgow Caledonian University, commissioned by the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, found rates had climbed from 26 per 100,000 in 2015 to 29 per 100,000 in 2019. The relatively small overall increase hid a wide discrepancy in rates between different occupations. Suicides among unskilled workers, such as labourers, jumped more than 50 per cent from 48 per 100,000 in 2015 to 73 per 100,000 in 2019. Conversely, the rate among non-manual workers, such as managers, fell from around seven per 100,000 to just under five.