Good news for everyone in the safety industry! The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently reported that there was a decline in the rate of workplace injuries and illnesses in the private industry for 2007. This is the fifth consecutive year that the safety industry saw a decline in this significant figure.
According to BLS, the year 2007 saw approximately 4 million workplace injuries and illnesses. The figure translates to 4.2 cases for every 100 full-time employees. This is slightly less than the 4.4 rate in 2006.
Industries and Incidence Rates
Incidence rates and the total number of cases for injuries and illnesses declined in 2007 for such case types as total recordable cases (TRC), cases with days away from work, and cases with job transfer or restriction. There was no relative change, though, in the incidence rate and number of cases for recordable cases.
Photo by Kenn W. Kiser
It’s important to note that the overall decline in the TRC incidence rate among private industries was primarily caused by the decline among all goods-producing industry sectors. Such sectors are agriculture, forestry, fishing & hunting; construction; mining; and manufacturing.
While only 1.2 million (30.3 percent) of the 4 million nonfatal workplace injuries happened in goods-producing industries, the service-producing industries accounted for 3.8 million (94.8 percent) of this total.This huge difference can be attributed to the total number of employment of each industry.That is, goods-producing industries employ 20.5 percent of the private industry workforce covered by the survey, while service-providing industries account for 79.5 percent of the employment.
Injuries and Illnesses
There was a significant decline both in the incidence rate and the number of illnesses in 2007 compared to 2006. BLS said this was mainly due to declines in disorders, skin diseases, and other illness categories.
A decline can also be seen in the TRC injury and illness incidence rates among 5 of the 19 private industry sectors: manufacturing; health care and social assistance; construction; mining; and agriculture, forestry, fishing & hunting. No statistical change happened, though, in the 14 other industry sectors.
The BLS report also reflects that there were more injuries and illnesses in general medical and surgical hospitals compared to any other industry in 2007.The number of cases reported by this industry totaled to 253,500.
Mid-size establishments (employing between 50 to 249 workers) have the highest TRC injury and illness incidence rate, while small establishments (employing fewer than 11 workers) have the lowest.
Out of the 4 million workplace injury and illness cases, only less than 6 percent is attributed to illnesses. As a whole, a significant decline occurred both in the number and rate of illnesses among goods-producing industries.
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