Our thanks to Keith for this. The headline (above) is encouraging, especially for the BBC, but because it’s the BBC, even in the area of suicide (78% of victims are men) there needs to be some obfuscation. The start of the piece:

Men working in the lowest-skilled occupations and women health professionals are at the highest risk of suicide, according to new research. Figures also show construction workers killed themselves at a rate three times higher than the male average. For women, people in culture, media and sport had a rate 69% higher than the female average.

Many people don’t go beyond the first few lines of media reports. So they’d miss what follows. Another excerpt:

The raw numbers showed 1,047 male suicides were of people in the construction or building trade.

Cynically, the report writer has excluded the categories ‘elementary construction’ (c. 380 male suicides) and ‘building finishing (c. 350 male suicides). The total number of suicides among men in the construction or building trade is therefore around 1,777. This excludes the ‘electrician’ category, although a substantial poportion of electricians work in the construction or building trade.

The 1,777 male suicides can be compared with the profession with the most female suicides, caring – 273 suicides over the same period.

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