The first workplace injury in the Yukon this year happened on New Year's Day, fewer than three hours past midnight.

At 2:45 a.m., while many Yukoners were winding down from the evening's celebrations, a 48-year-old man walked to the front step of his workplace, slipped on a bolted metal panel and fell to the ground.

Hours later, he was in Whitehorse General Hospital receiving an x-ray.

"Thankfully, it was a fairly straight-forward incident,” said Valerie Royle, the president and CEO of the Yukon Workers Compensation Health and Safety Board.

"There was minor medical treatment and no lost time.”

The next morning, a number one was displayed on the digital board outside the Fourth Avenue building.

Since then, there have been four more on-the-job injuries in the territory, a number that will inevitably grow as the year goes on.

Serious on-the-job injuries are fairly minimal.

The most common form of workplace injury in the Yukon are those caused by contact with objects found in the workplace. Injuries include everything from cuts and burns at restaurant jobs to bumps and bruises on a construction site.

The next most common forms of injury are falls and body reaction injuries, such as those acquired from heavy lifting.

Others are far more severe.

The board reports the Yukon has the second-highest number of workplace deaths per capita in the country, about one in every 5,000 workers.

The territory follows only the Northwest Territories, where numbers were uncommonly high last year due to several high-profile airplane crashes.

Last year, four workers were killed:

• Bradley Chambers, a pilot in Mayo;

• Steve Cardiff, then an NDP MLA, who died in a traffic collision last July south of Whitehorse;

• Kurt Gantner, then Tagish's fire chief, while rushing to a blaze; and

• Denis Chabot, a mechanic who was crushed by a heavy truck in November at Integra Tire in Whitehorse.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to identify which industries have a higher propensity for on-the-job fatality.

"I don't think it is any comfort to the families, but we had four very different fatalities last year,” said Royle.

There are some industries, which have higher rates of injury than others.

Long-haul trucking companies report some of the highest injuries in the territory, according to the board, but the highest assessment rates are paid by mining companies.

"Of all employers, mineral exploration companies need the most help,” said Royle.

They are some of the newest employers in the territory and tend to hire younger and out-of-territory workers each year, said Royle.

In some of the newer operations, board staff have seen workers putting in 20 to 28 days straight on the job, she said.

"They are spending a lot of time out there,” said Royle. "It's not the seasoned, larger exploration companies. It's the smaller operations, who haven't dealt with us before, who are bringing workers in from across the land and plunking them in the middle of the Yukon wilderness.”

This year, the board has an officer stationed in Dawson City to be nearer to these smaller operations.

The board recommends that employers earn their CORE safety certification, which it attributed to a 47 per cent reduction in assessment rate costs in the territory's construction industry in 2011.

Construction, which is 100 per cent CORE-certified in the Yukon, received a further 22 per cent reduction for 2012.

Ultimately, though, it is still up to every worker to ensure they remain safe on the job.

"There is only so much we can do as an organization,” said Royle.

"It comes down to what is happening in every workplace in the Yukon, every day.

"We need every worker, every employer to be conscious of workers' safety, otherwise we are going to keep seeing the numbers go up on that board.”