December 17, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Rate of on-the-job injuries and illnesses continues to decline

Last year, the incidence rate for injuries and illnesses in private industry workplaces was 6.7 cases per 100 full-time workers, down from 7.1 in 1997. The decline marked the sixth year in a row that the incidence rate fell.

[Chart data—TXT]

The incidence rate was 8.9 cases per 100 full-time workers in 1992, so the rate has dropped by 25 percent in six years. The rate for 1998 was the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began reporting this information in the early 1970s.

Totally there were 5.9 million nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses. Most of these cases were injuries—there were 5.5 million injuries and 392,000 illnesses in 1998.

The BLS Safety and Health Statistics Program produced these data. Find more information on occupational injuries and illnesses in 1998 in Workplace Injuries and Illnesses in 1998 news release USDL 99-358.