OS NR 10/20/2011 News Release: Workplace Injuries and Illnesses--2010
For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Thursday, October 20, 2011 USDL-11-1502
Technical information: (202) 691-6170 * iifstaff@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/iif/oshsum.htm
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
WORKPLACE INJURIES AND ILLNESSES--2010
Nearly 3.1 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported among private industry
employers in 2010, resulting in an incidence rate of 3.5 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers--
down from 3.6 cases in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See tables 1 and 2.)
The total recordable cases (TRC) injury and illness incidence rate among private industry employers has
declined significantly each year since 2002, when estimates from the Survey of Occupational Injuries
and Illnesses (SOII) were first published using the current OSHA requirements for recording
occupational injuries and illnesses.
Key findings from the 2010 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses
* Incidence rates for injuries and illnesses combined among private industry establishments declined
significantly in 2010 for total recordable cases and for other recordable cases. The incidence rates for
cases with days away from work; for cases of job transfer and restriction; and for cases of days away
from work, job transfer, or restriction together each remained unchanged from 2009. (See chart 1.)
* 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 the year
earlier. The increased rate resulted from a larger decline in hours worked than the decline in the
number of reported cases in the industry sector.
* The total recordable cases incidence rate in the private construction industry sector decreased by 0.3
cases to 4.0 cases per 100 full-time workers in 2010--a seven percent decline. Specialty trade
contractors reported a similar decline of 0.3 cases in the injury and illness incidence rate--falling to
4.3 cases per 100 full-time workers--and was largely responsible for the reported decline in the
construction industry sector.
* Health care 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 industry workers remained unchanged between
2009 and 2010 at 3.4 cases per 100 full-time workers. (See table 5.)
* 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 0.2 cases per 10,000
full-time workers in 2009 to 0.3 cases in 2010. (See table 6a.)
* National public sector estimates covering more than 18.4 million state and local government workers
are available for the third consecutive year with an incidence rate of 5.7 cases per 100 full-time
workers in 2010, relatively unchanged from 2009.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
| Note on error in benchmark data: An error in input data was identified that affected the 2007- |
| 2009 workplace injury and illness national numbers. The effect on the national numbers is small and |
| none of the incidence rates or state estimates were affected. See table A for further information. |
|_____________________________________________________________________________________________________|
More than one-half of the 3.1 million private industry injury and illness cases reported nationally in
2010 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. (See table 7.) The rates for the two components of DART cases (cases
involving days away from work and those requiring job transfer or restriction) also remained unchanged
in 2010--1.1 and 0.8 cases per 100 full-time workers, respectively. Manufacturing was the only private
industry sector in 2010 in which the rate of job transfer or restriction cases exceeded the rate of cases
with days away from work, continuing a 13-year trend. Other recordable cases--those not involving
days away from work, job transfer, or restriction--accounted for the remaining nearly 1.5 million injury
and illness cases nationally and occurred at a lower rate in 2010 (1.7 cases per 100 full-time workers)
compared to 2009 (1.8 cases).
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. (See
table 3 and chart 2.)
Private Industry Injuries and Illnesses
Injuries. Approximately 2.9 million (94.9 percent) of the 3.1 million nonfatal occupational injuries and
illnesses in 2010 were injuries. Of these, 2.2 million (75.8 percent) occurred in service-providing
industries, which employed 82.4 percent of the private industry workforce covered by this survey. The
remaining 0.7 million injuries (24.2 percent) occurred in goods-producing industries, which accounted
for 17.6 percent of private industry employment in 2010.
Illnesses. Workplace illnesses accounted for 5.1 percent of the 3.1 million injury and illness cases in
2010. (See table 6b.) The rate of workplace illnesses in 2010 (18.1 per 10,000 full-time workers) was
not statistically different from the 2009 incidence rate (18.3 cases).
Goods-producing industries as a whole accounted for 36.3 percent of all occupational illness cases in
2010, resulting in an incident rate of 31.8 per 10,000 full-time workers--up from 29.1 cases in 2009.
The manufacturing industry sector accounted for over 30 percent of all private industry occupational
illness cases, resulting in the highest illness incidence rate among all industry sectors of 41.9 cases per
10,000 full-time workers in 2010--an increase from 39.0 cases in 2009. Service-providing industries
accounted for the remaining 63.7 percent of private industry illness cases and experienced a rate of 14.6
cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2010--statistically unchanged from the prior year. Among
service-providing industry sectors, health care and social assistance contributed 24.2 percent of all
private industry illness cases and experienced an incidence rate of 30.2 cases per 10,000 full-time
workers in 2010--down from 34.8 cases in 2009.
National Public Sector Estimates
National public sector estimates covering approximately 18.4 million state and local government
workers--for example, police protection (NAICS 922120) and fire protection (NAICS 922160)--are
available from the 2010 SOII for the third consecutive year.
Approximately 820,300 injury and illness cases were reported among state and local government
workers combined 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 per 100 workers), and relatively
unchanged from the rate (5.8 cases) reported among these public sector workers in 2009. Nearly 4 in 5
injuries and illnesses reported in the public sector occurred among local government workers in 2010,
resulting in an injury and illness rate of 6.1 cases per 100 full-time workers--significantly higher than
the 4.6 cases per 100 full-time workers in state government. (See chart 3.)
State Estimates
Private industry and public sector estimates are available for 42 participating states (including the
District of Columbia) individually for 2010. Data for establishments in the nine states for which
individual estimates are unavailable are collected by BLS regional offices and used solely for the
tabulation of national estimates. (See chart 4.) State estimates will be available online 10 business days
following the release of national estimates; these estimates may also be requested prior to this from the
respective state offices. (See www.bls.gov/iif/oshstate.htm for state contacts.)
As compared to a year earlier, private industry TRC incidence rates among the 42 states (including the
District of Columbia) for which estimates are available in 2010 declined in six states and remained
statistically unchanged in 35 states (estimates were not available for Massachusetts for 2009 for
comparison).
The private industry TRC incidence rates were higher in 22 states than the national rate of 3.5 cases per
100 full-time workers in 2010, lower than the national rate in 14 states, and not statistically different
from the national rate in six states. Differences in industry mix account for at least some of the
differences in rates across states.
Publication Tables and Supplemental Charts
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has generated estimates of injuries and illnesses for many of the
2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-digit industries as defined in the 2007 North American Industry Classification
System (NAICS) manual. A complete listing of these estimates is not available in this release. However,
summary tables 1 and 2--providing incidence rates and counts of injuries and illnesses by detailed
NAICS industry, case type, and ownership (e.g., total recordable cases or cases with days away from
work in private industry), respectively--may be accessed electronically for the current and prior years
from www.bls.gov/iif/oshsum.htm, requested from BLS staff at 202-691-6170, or requested by email at
IIFSTAFF@bls.gov. Supplemental tables and charts illustrating trends among incidence rates and counts
are also available from these sources.
Background of the Survey
Second in a series of three releases from the BLS covering occupational safety and health statistics for
2010, this release follows the August report on fatal work-related injuries from the Census of Fatal
Occupational Injuries. A third release in November, 2011 will provide case circumstances and worker
characteristics from the SOII for nonfatal injury and illness cases requiring at least one day away from
work to recuperate.
Additional background and methodological information regarding the BLS occupational safety and
health statistics program, including information such as changes in the definition of recordable cases due
to revised recordkeeping requirements in 2002 and the inherent underreporting of illnesses, can be found
in Chapter 9 of the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/homch9.htm.
Error in benchmark data
Employments used in benchmarking national survey data were revised for 2010 to correct an error in
input data that affected the 2007-2009 workplace injury and illness national numbers. This resulted in
national estimates of the number of injuries and illnesses that were marginally higher than would have
otherwise been the case. Table A displays the estimates as originally published and as revised. This
change does not affect national incidence rates or any state estimates. BLS does not plan to revise
previously-published estimates of the number of injuries and illnesses, but cautions data users that this
change could minimally affect the comparability of injury and illness numbers over time.
Table A. Effect of updated benchmark employment on 2008 and 2009 estimates
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
| | 2008 | 2009 |
|_____________________|__________________________________________________|______________________________________________|
| Industry | Original total | Adjusted | Percent | Original total | Adjusted | Percent |
| | recordable | total recordable | change | recordable | total recordable | change |
| | cases number | cases number | | cases number | cases number | |
| | (in thousands) | (in thousands) | | (in thousands) | (in thousands) | |
|_____________________|________________|__________________|______________|________________|__________________|__________|
| Private industry | 3,696.1 | 3,669.6 | -0.7% | 3,277.7 | 3,254.5 | -0.7% |
|_____________________|________________|__________________|______________|________________|__________________|__________|
| State government | 196.8 | 187.5 | -4.7% | 193.0 | 183.9 | -4.7% |
|_____________________|________________|__________________|______________|________________|__________________|__________|
| Local government | 741.2 | 737.9 | -0.4% | 670.0 | 667.0 | -0.4% |
|_____________________|________________|__________________|______________|________________|__________________|__________|
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor
(Chart 1 appears here in the printed release.)
(Chart 2 appears here in the printed release.)
(Chart 3 appears here in the printed release.)
(Chart 4 appears here in the printed release.)
