Texas Department of Insurance

Incidence Rates for Occupational Injuries and Illnesses: 1990-1992 (August 1994)

Introduction

This information was compiled from 1990-1992 annual surveys of occupational injuries and illnesses conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This survey is limited to private industry, and excludes the self-employed, farmers with fewer than 11 employees, private households, and government employees. Two tiers of data were collected: U.S. data, which are aggregate information from each of the 50 states as well as all U.S. territories; and individual state data, which are collected only for states that fund a portion of the project. The U.S. sample size for each of the three years was 250,000. Individual state participation varies across industry and year.

Incidence rates for 1990 and 1991 include injuries and illnesses which resulted in a fatality, and incidence rates for 1992 exclude fatalities. According to BLS, this difference in the methodology for calculating incidence rates does not have a significant impact on the rates reported in the analyses due to the relatively rare occurrence of fatal cases.

Information is presented by industry. Both a graph and table of incidence rates for occupational injuries and illnesses are presented for each industry. The tables offer U.S. incidence rates by year in addition to a breakdown of incidence rates by participating states, with Texas incidence rates highlighted. The graphs compare the highest and lowest state incidence rates with those of Texas and the U.S.

While the overall U.S. incidence rates for total cases per 100 employees have fluctuated from 8.8 in 1990 to 8.4 in 1991 and back to 8.9 in 1992, Texas incidence rates for total cases per 100 employees have dropped from 8.0 in 1990 to 7.3 in 1992, a decline of 8.8 percent. The state's incidence rates for lost workday cases have dropped 15 percent from 4.0 in 1990 to 3.4 in 1992. Among the 41 states represented in the 1992 survey, Texas ranked seventh-lowest in both total case incidence rates and lost workday case incidence rates.

In Texas, two industries dramatically improved their BLS performance between 1990 and 1992. Agricultural services, forestry, and fishing (SIC 07-09) total case incidence rates dropped 35.6 percent from 10.4 in 1990 to 6.7 in 1992. Texas' ranking for this industry rose from 16th to second in comparison with other states. The lost workday case incidence rates dropped 37.1 percent from 5.4 in 1990 to 3.4 in 1992, improving the Texas ranking from 18th to third. Nationally, incidence rates for total cases in this sector dropped from 10.5 in 1990 to 9.9 in 1991, then rose to 11.2 in 1992. Nationwide incidence rates for lost workday cases fluctuated from 5.4 in 1990 to 5.2 in 1991, then back to 5.4 in 1992.

The oil and gas extraction sector (SIC 13) also experienced a marked improvement between 1990 and 1992. Texas total case incidence rates dropped 38.9 percent from 7.2 in 1990 to 4.4 in 1992, moving the state's rank from second to first. The lost workday case incidence rates dropped 41 percent from 3.9 in 1990 to 2.3 percent in 1992, with a corr esponding rank increase from fifth to third. U.S. total case incidence rates in this industry dropped 25 percent over the 1990 to 1992 period, and national incidence rates for lost workday cases dropped 28.6 percent from 4.2 in 1990 to 3.0 in 1992.

All but two of the major SIC categories for which Texas data was available improved their BLS incidence rates between 1990 and 1992. Only the finance, insurance and real estate (SIC 60-67) and services (SIC 70-89) sectors had increasing total case incidence rates over the indicated time period. These sectors experienced total case incidence rate increases of 7.4 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively. The services sector annually experienced a minor (3.6 percent) decline in lost workday case incidence rates between 1990 and 1992.

For further information, contact: WCResearch@tdi.state.tx.us .
This page was last updated on December 9, 2002.