EMPLOYER-REPORTED WORKPLACE INJURIES AND ILLNESSES--2014
The nearly 3.0 million nonfatal workplace injuries and
illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2014 occurred at a rate of
3.2 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers, according to estimates from the
Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) conducted by the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (See tables 1 and 2.) The rate reported for 2014
continues a pattern of declines that, with the exception of 2012, occurred
annually for the last 12 years.
Private industry employers reported nearly 54,000 fewer
nonfatal injury and illness cases in 2014 compared to a year earlier. Because
of this decline combined with an increase in reported hours worked, the total
recordable cases (TRC) incidence rate fell 0.1 cases per 100 full-time workers.
The fall in the TRC rate was driven by a decline in the rate of other
recordable cases, as rates for both cases involving days away from work (DAFW)
and for cases of job transfer or restriction only (DJTR) were unchanged in
2014.
Among all private industry sectors, the rate of reported
injuries and illnesses declined in 2014 only among the retail trade, health
care and social assistance, and accommodation and food services sectors. Manufacturing
continued a 17-year trend as the only private industry sector in which the rate
of DJTR cases exceeded the rate of DAFW cases. The rates for these two case
types were unchanged from a year earlier at 1.2 cases and 1.0 case per 100
full-time workers, respectively.
Private Industry
Injuries and Illnesses
Injuries and
illnesses by type of case
Over half of the nearly 3.0 million private industry
injury and illness cases reported in 2014 involved days away from work, job
transfer, or restriction (DART cases). These cases occurred at a rate of 1.7 cases
per 100 full-time workers, unchanged from 2013. (See table 7.) The rates for
the two components of DART cases--DAFW cases and DJTR cases--were also
unchanged at 1.0 case and 0.7 cases per 100 workers, respectively. Other
recordable cases--those not involving days away from work or days of job transfer
or restriction--accounted for the remaining nearly 1.4 million injury and
illness cases in 2014, lowering the rate by 0.1 cases to 1.5 cases per 100
full-time workers.
The TRC injury and illness incidence rate declined for
each of the individual establishment size classes in 2014. The rate of injuries
and illnesses remained highest among mid-size private industry establishments
(employing 50 to 249 workers) and lowest among small establishments (employing fewer
than 11 workers). (See table 3.)
Injuries
Of the nearly 3.0 million nonfatal occupational injuries
and illnesses in 2014, 2.8 million (95.1 percent) were injuries. (See table 5.)
Among injuries, nearly 2.1 million (75.0 percent) occurred in service-providing
industries, which employed 82.4 percent of the private industry workforce. The
remaining nearly 0.7 million injuries (25.0 percent) occurred in
goods-producing industries, which accounted for 17.6 percent of private
industry employment.
Illnesses
Workplace illnesses accounted for 4.9 percent of the
nearly 3.0 million injury and illness cases in 2014 and occurred at a rate of
15.3 cases per 10,000 full-time workers, down 1.3 cases from 2013. (See tables 6a
and 6b.) Among individual illness categories, only the rate of reported skin
diseases declined in 2014, falling 0.5 cases to 2.3 cases per 10,000 full-time
workers. Rates among the other individual illness categories were relatively
unchanged compared to a year earlier.
Goods-producing industries accounted for 35.6 percent of
all occupational illness cases in 2014,
resulting in an incidence rate of 26.0 cases per 10,000
full-time workers--down 1.6 cases. Service-providing industries accounted for
64.4 percent of private industry illness cases and experienced a rate of 12.5
cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2014--down 1.2 cases.
National Public
Sector Estimates
An estimated 722,300 injury and illness cases were
reported in 2014 among the approximately 18.3 million state and local government
workers--for example, police protection and fire protection--resulting in a
rate of 5.0 cases per 100 full-time workers. The rate among these workers was
relatively unchanged from a year earlier (5.2 cases) but was higher than the
rate among private industry workers (3.2 cases) in 2014. Nearly 4 in 5 injuries
and illnesses reported in the public sector occurred among local government
workers in 2014, resulting in an injury and illness rate of 5.4 cases per 100
full-time workers--higher than the 4.1 cases per 100 full-time workers in state
government.
State Estimates
Among states for which estimates are available for 2014,
the private industry TRC injury and illness incidence rates declined in 10
states and were relatively unchanged in 31 states and in the District of Columbia,
compared to a year earlier. The private industry TRC injury and illness
incidence rates were higher in 19 states than the national rate of 3.2 cases
per 100 full-time workers, lower than the national rate in 14 states and in the
District of Columbia, and about the same as the national rate in eight states. Factors
such as differences in the composition of industry employment may influence state
incidence rates and should be considered whenever comparing rates among
different states.
Private industry and public sector estimates are
available for 41 participating states, three U.S.
territories, and for the District of Columbia for 2014.
Data for establishments in the nine states for which individual estimates are
unavailable are collected by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) regional offices and
used solely for the tabulation of national estimates. State estimates will be
available online on Friday, November 13, 2015; these estimates may also be
requested prior to this date from the respective state offices. (See
www.bls.gov/iif/oshstate.htm for state contacts.)
Publication Tables
and Supplemental Charts
BLS has generated estimates of injuries and illnesses for
many of the 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-digit industries as defined in the 2012 North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS) manual. A complete listing of
these estimates is not available in this release. However, summary tables 1 and
2--providing incidence rates and counts of injuries and illnesses by detailed
NAICS industry, case type, and ownership (e.g., total recordable cases or cases
with days away from work in private industry), respectively--may be accessed
from www.bls.gov/iif/oshsum.htm, requested from BLS staff at (202) 691-6170, or
requested by email at IIFSTAFF@bls.gov. Supplemental tables and charts illustrating
trends among incidence rates and counts are also available from these sources.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired
individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service
(800) 877-8339.
Background of the
Survey
This news release is the second in a series of three
releases from BLS covering occupational safety and health statistics for the
2014 calendar year and follows the September preliminary report on fatal work-related
injuries from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). A third release
in November will provide case circumstances and worker characteristics from the
SOII for nonfatal injury and illness cases requiring at least one day away from
work to recuperate.
All statements of comparison made in this news release
were found to be statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level.
Additional background and methodological information regarding the BLS occupational
safety and health statistics program can be found in Chapter 9 of the BLS
Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/homch9.pdf. Employment data in
this news release are 2014 annual averages from the BLS Quarterly Census of
Employment and Wages (QCEW) program.
Completeness of
SOII Estimates
BLS has long acknowledged that some conditions which
often are difficult for employers to relate to the workplace are not adequately
recognized and reported during a calendar year (for example, long-term latent
illnesses) and are believed to be understated in SOII illness measures.
Following several studies in the mid-2000s questioning the completeness of SOII
injury and illness counts, BLS began internal research in 2007 and, at the
request of Congress, established an ongoing research program. Initial research
conducted between 2009 and 2012 found that the SOII failed to capture some
cases but could not determine the magnitude or leading cause of an undercount.
Researchers determined that the ability to match injury and illness data across
different data sources was impacted by various factors, such as establishment
type, the time of case filing, and the type of injury. BLS initiated additional
research from 2012 to 2014 that included interviews with employers in four
states to learn more about their injury and illness recordkeeping practices and
a multiple-year match of SOII data to workers' compensation records to analyze
matching trends over time. BLS is currently funding a nationwide follow-back
survey with SOII respondents to learn more about their recordkeeping practices
and timing issues that may negatively affect injury and illness reporting to
the SOII. BLS also continues to conduct exploratory research on the collection
of occupational injury and illness data directly from employees. For more information
on undercount research, please see www.bls.gov/iif/undercount.htm.
Source: BLS
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