On-the-job suicides are on the rise in the United States After a rash of layoffs and facing survivor's guilt, workplace suicides surged 28 percent last year, according to the Labor Department.

At the same time, however, the total umber of workers who died on the job from any cause fell by 10 percent last year. the 5,071 fatalities in 2008 was the lowest since the agency began tracking the data in 1992. That number includes 251 suicides, which is the highest since the reporting began.

The Labor Dept. did not try to find an explanation for the rise in workplace suicides, however a spokesman for the agency said that they plan to research it more extensively. They did say that economic factors could be responsible for the overall decline in fatalities.