October 30, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Workplace violence in 2005

Five percent of all establishments surveyed had an incident of workplace violence in the past 12 months.

[Chart data—TXT]

Half of the largest establishments—those employing 1,000 or more workers—reported an incident. In these largest establishments in private industry, goods-producing industries reported a higher percentage of co-worker workplace violence than service-providing industries. Service-providing industries reported much higher percentages of criminal, customer, and domestic violence than goods-producing industries.

State government reported higher percentages of all types of workplace violence in the past 12 months than did local government or private industry. Thirty-two percent of all State government workplaces reported some form of workplace violence, compared with 15 percent of local government workplaces and 5 percent of private industry establishments.

The higher reported incidence of violence in State and local government workplaces may be attributed to their work environments. These workplaces reported much higher percentages of working directly with the public, having a mobile workplace, working with unstable or violent persons, working in high crime areas, guarding valuable goods or property, and working in community based settings than did private industry.

These new data are from the BLS Injuries, Illnesses and Fatalities program and are from a special survey conducted BLS for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey covered private industry and State and local governments. For more information, see "Survey of Workplace Violence Prevention, 2005," (TXT) (PDF) news release USDL 06-1860.