Contractor Fatalities as of September 2008

From the Associated Press:

Deaths of civilian employees of U.S. government contractors as of Sept 30, 2008: 1,264

No mention of injuries or missing personnel. 

As a side note, while I was at the Defense Base Act conference in Washington DC, I spoke with someone from the Department of Labor about missing persons. His words, "we can't prove it, but we know there must be more than reported." By "we," he meant the Department of Labor. 

According to the person I spoke with, the Department of Labor is aware that in some circumstances, employers continue paying the full salary of a kidnapped or missing employee rather than file a report or claim. There's some logic behind this. For one, employers want to keep a low profile and keep their company name out of the news media. Two, keeping an individual's names out of the news may aid with recovery especially in dealing with ransom demands. Three, families facing an already stressful situation want some privacy. 

Pretty much, no one really knows how many Americans are missing in Iraq today. 

Reference

Iraq: Key figures since the war began
Julie Reed and Rhonda Shafner, Associated Press, December 1, 2008