Objectives: This study compared differences in age-standardized suicide mortality rates, personal characteristics (demographics, employment conditions, and details of suicide), and work-related stress by gender and occupation among workers who had committed suicide in Korea. Methods: Data comprised 413 suicide death claims lodged with the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) from 2010 to 2018, which were coded.We calculated age-standardized suicide mortality rates by gender and occupation.The chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and t-test were conducted to examine gender differences. Frequency and percentage distribution by gender and occupation were calculated using descriptive statistics. Results: Regardless of gender, age-standardized suicide mortality rate was highest among "Managers." Women who died by suicide were significantly younger and more likely to be unmarried, live alone, and have fewer years of continuous employment than men. "Managers," "Professionals and Related Workers," and "Clerks" experienced similar work-related stresses, including "Difficult work to achieve," "Fail to achieve allocation workload," and "Change of job contents or workload." "Skilled Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Workers," "Craft and Related Trades Workers," and "Equipment, Machine Operating and Assembling Workers" had higher workrelated stress related to "Severe disease/injury" or "Causing a serious accident" compared with other workers. Conclusions: Work-related stress related to suicide deaths differed by gender and occupation. The gender gap of labor market participation in Korea may affect gender differences in terms of demographics and employment conditions among workers who died by suicide. Our study suggests that gender-and occupation-specific strategies and policies to reduce work-related stress can prevent suicide among workers.

Suicide is a major public health concern in South Korea, and self-poisoning by pesticides is one of the common methods of suicide. Pesticide ban policies have been successful for suicide prevention; however, no studies have shown their effect according to occupational groups. The present study analyzed suicide and suicide by pesticide rates among South Korean workers age 15-64 in 2003-2017, their associations with occupational groups, and the impact of three major economic indices on these factors. Workers in the agriculture, forestry, and fishery industries have relative risks of 5.62 (95% CI: 5.54-5.69) for suicide overall and 25.49 (95% CI: 24.46-26.57) for suicide by pesticide. The real gross domestic product (RGDP) has a positive association with suicide overall only in the last five-year period investigated in this study, and the unemployment rate consistently has a positive association. The economic status and policy for suicide prevention affect suicide and suicide by pesticide rates differently among occupational groups and different time periods. Policy addressing suicidal risk for different occupational groups should be of concern in South Korea.