Injury/Illness Rate Drops for 2010

11.16.2011
HR & Safety

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says fewer workers were hurt or made sick on the job in 2010.

Private industry employers reported nearly 3.1 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2010, resulting in an incidence rate of 3.5 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers. The incidence rate for 2009 was 3.6 cases.

According to BLS, the total recordable cases injury and illness incidence rate among private industry employers has declined significantly since 2002, when figures were first published using OSHA requirements for recording occupational injuries and illnesses.

Key findings from the BLS 2010 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses:

  • Manufacturing was the sole private industry sector to experience an increase in the incidence rate of injuries and illnesses in 2010, rising to 4.4 cases per 100 full-time workers from 4.3 cases a year earlier.
  • The total recordable cases incidence rate in the private construction industry sector decreased by .3 cases to 4.0 cases per 100 full-time workers in 2010: a 7% decline.
  • Healthcare and social assistance experienced an incidence rate of injuries and illnesses of 5.2 cases per 100 full-time workers: down from 5.4 cases in 2009: and was the lone industry sector in which both reported employment and hours worked increased in 2010.
  • The incidence rate of injuries only among private sector workers remained unchanged between 2009 and 2010 at 3.4 cases per 100 full-time workers
  • The incidence rate of illness cases alone remained relatively unchanged in 2010, as did rates among all illness categories with the exception of poisoning, whose rate increased from .2 cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2009 to .3 cases in 2010.
  • More than half of the 3.1 million private industry cases reported were of a more serious nature that involved days away from work, job transfer, or restriction: commonly referred to as DART cases. These cases occurred at a rate of 1.8 cases per 100 full-time workers, unchanged from 2009.
  • The total recordable cases injury and illness incidence rate was highest in 2010 among mid-size private industry establishments (those employing between 50 and 249 workers) and lowest among small establishments (those employing fewer than 11 workers) compared to establishments of other sizes.
  • Approximately 820,300 injury and illness cases were reported among public sector workers in 2010, resulting in a rate of 5.7% cases per 100 full-time workers: significantly higher than the rate among private industry workers (3.5 cases) and relatively unchanged from the 2009 rate (5.8 cases).

For complete BLS data: www.bls.gov/news.release/osh.nr0.htm

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