BLS Reports Steady Decline in Workplace Injuries & Illnesses

The 2013 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), reveals that nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses declined to a rate of 3.3 incidents per 100 full-time workers. This decrease continues an 11-year pattern of declines, with the exception of 2012.

Key findings of the survey include:

• The total recordable cases incidence rate of injury and illness reported by private industry employers declined in 2013 from a year earlier.. 
• The rate of reported injuries and illnesses declined significantly in 2013 among the manufacturing, retail trade, and utilities sectors but was statistically unchanged among all other private industry sectors compared to last year. 
• In 2013, manufacturing continued a 16-year trend as the only private industry sector in which the rate of job transfer or restriction only cases exceeded the rate of cases with days away from work. 
• The rate of injuries and illnesses among state and local government workers combined declined to 5.2 cases per 100 full-time workers in 2013 compared to 5.6 cases in 2012 and remains significantly higher than the private industry rate. 

OSHA reminds employers that beginning Jan. 1, 2015, OSHA reporting requirements will change. Employers will be responsible for reporting all fatal work injuries within 8 hours, and all in-patient hospitalizations, amputations or losses of an eye within 24 hours.

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