Work Injury Statistics to Watch Out For

[Our 2022 Collab with USA work statistics Research]


Are you safe at work? That last shift might literally be your last if you’re not careful or your workplace isn’t safe. You can get seriously injured, sick, or actually die. And the official numbers don’t lie.

We’ve researched important work injury stats that have the heaviest impact on the American workforce. Don’t end up being just another statistic—read on. Your health and your life will thank you. 

                 Top American Work Injury Statistics
                (Editor’s Choice)

• An employee dies every 99 minutes due to a work-related injury. 
• 5,333 work deaths were recorded in 2019 by the National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, in their annual report on workplace fatality statistics (December 2020).
• 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were noted in 2019 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in their annual report (November 2020). 
• Transportation-related accidents are the most common fatal injuries at work. 
• Sprains, strains, and tears are the most common nonfatal work injuries, usually in the Manufacturing Industry.
• Covid19 is a new addition to 2020 workplace safety statistics with 143,100 infections on American health care workers and 660 fatal cases. 
• 570,000 healthcare workers have fallen ill to Coronavirus, with 2,500 dead in the whole American continent.
  

                    Top Nonfatal Job Incidents in America:
                      Non-Lethal Work Injury Statistics

Nonfatal work injuries are the most common type of harmful incidents in the workplace.

A total of 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries were noted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in their 2019 workplace accidents statistics report. Most of the nonfatal work incidents are in manual labor work. Office and non-manual work across all 50 states are also included in this total.

The manufacturing industry owns the largest share of these nonfatal injuries and illnesses with 421,400 recorded in their work injury reports.

This number remained the same since its 2018 report. Many dangerous tasks abound in this industry: Machines, vehicles, heavy equipment, and dangerous manual labor are all major contributors based on their findings. Random errors and miscalculations add to the mix as well – a dangerous combination.

There were 888, 220 nonfatal occupational injury statistics cases. Private industry workers missed one or more workdays because of them.

What doesn’t kill you will cost you; 32,470 were from sprains, strains, and tears at 28%. 16,790 cases of soreness or pain accounted for 14.5%. Meanwhile, 15,380 were from cuts, lacerations, or punctures that tally at 13.3%.

These days away from work accident statistics were highest in freight, stock, material movers, and by hand.

Those fields held a total of 64,160 cases. At second are heavy and tractor-trailer truck driver jobs with 47,990 incidents. Nursing assistants are at third with 27,590.

8 days is the average number of days away from work because of injuries and illnesses.

This workplace injury statistics figure remains unchanged from 2018. 16 days is the average days off for senior employees aged 65 years and up from injuries and illnesses, in the same 2019 study period. DAWF equals lost time, pay, and sometimes medical bills. Fortunately, most of these cases are covered.

Office and work from home:
Nonfatal work related injury statistics

Lower Back Pain is the most common nonfatal injury in American office workers.

LBP is also most prevalent among those below 45 years old – The majority age range of US office employees. This is according to a study conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information in 2011. Most back injury at work statistics reports show that 1 in 4 employees (26%) experience LBP.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke explains that lower back pain is a “mechanical problem”. The spine, intervertebral discs, back muscles, and nerves are affected. This information is not presented in most work injury statistics.

Those working long hours at an average of 6.29 hours per shift and sitting are the most at risk. Development of the dreaded lower back pain has made it one of the major causes of office injury statistics as well. Improper desk and chair ergonomics are major factors of office LBP.

Physical and pre-existing factors such as scoliosis, weakness of the lower back muscles, spine stability, and improper torso movement are secondary factors. Statistics about injury at work due to poor posture are common in office environments.

In a late 2020 New York Times article, 92% of chiropractors in a survey noted that back pain and neck pain are the major complaints of patients who started working from home, or already were in early 2020. This was from a Facebook survey conducted by the American Chiropractic Association in April 2020.

Work related back injury statistics for WFH set-ups have similar issues with office work: long hours in front of the computer, poor posture, and prolonged bad positions. Employees working at home or who have shifted to it are not spared.

Other minor office work and WFH injuries we cannot overlook are general back pain, shoulder pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, eye strain, and headaches. Work related eye injury statistics from the NCBI have shown that digital eye strain or computer vision syndrome symptoms include eye strain, headaches, blurry vision, dry eyes, plus neck and shoulder pain. These findings are from the American Optometric Association.

Workplace Death Statistics

Wage and salary jobs still dominate over self-employed jobs when it comes to fatal injuries.

5,333 total incidents were recorded in 2019 by the National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in December 2020; 4,240 incidents came from wage and salary jobs in late 2019, ever-increasing per year. Only 1,093 were from self-employed workers.

The most common workplace injuries that OSHA reported were in the construction industry at 20% or 1,061 deaths.

Construction remains one of the most hazardous jobs; It deals with high location tasks, ladders, machinery, heavy equipment, chemicals, and many fatal elements. While safety precautions are observed, the human factor and dangerous conditions will cause fatalities regularly.

The top ten most common workplace fatality statistics causes and the primary industry or field it most happened are in order below, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA):

1. Fall Protection, Construction
2. Hazard Communication Standard, General Industry 
3. Respiratory Protection, General Industry 
4. Scaffolding, general requirements, Construction
5. Ladders, Construction (which directly adds to workplace accident stats for falls)
6. Control of Hazardous Energy, General Industry 
7. Powered Industrial Trucks, General Industry 
8. Fall Protection, Training Requirements 
9. Eye and Face Protection 
10. Machinery and Machine Guarding, General Requirements 
    

20,000 injuries from extremely low outdoor temperatures were confirmed by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics in the most recent cold weather work injury statistics.

14% or 2,890 incidents were from New York State; The polar vortex in 2019 left 22 frozen dead; However, no details were shown for any workers who got iced out.

Just as extremely cold weather can kill you, so can extreme heat stress; The Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that 11 workers die from it daily.

Outdoor and yard work injury statistics confirmed 720 nonfatal occurrences from 2015, the only recent report available from the BLS. The same study indicated the top five states with the most heat stress cases: Kansas, South Carolina, Nebraska, Georgia, and Arizona.

Meanwhile, 2,410 nonfatal cases were recorded for outdoor heat stress incidents that caused DAWF with an undisclosed number of days.

Statistics for yard work injury and fatalities exist. The most popular? Lawnmower injuries, including deaths – which ring an average of 69 a year.

If that seems pretty bizarre, read on: WTSP-TV news reported it from a Kim Kardashian tweet (?) and that more Americans die from lawnmowers than terrorists, sourced from the Royal Statistical Society.

Injury statistics for yard work are less morbid but still serious: 1,599 lawnmower injuries, 1,837 from gardening equipment, 1,060 from yard tools, 463 from chainsaws, and 228 from axes. Yard work can be deadly – careful with that axe Eugene.

Workers 55 years old and up had the most increase in fatalities.

Fatalities in work accidents statistics for workers aged 55 and up increased to 8 percent, with 1,863 fatal cases in 2018 going up to 2,005 in the 2019 statistics period. It is by far the highest recorded for this specific age demographic. Dial-in factors of age, the difficulty of jobs, and less physical strength as possible contributors to these unfortunate cases.

Hispanic or Latino worker fatalities were up 13 percent to 1,088 in 2019. This is a record high statistic since 1992. These workplace injuries statistics also tie in with the top ten common injuries discussed above.

Their demographic group has the most number of employees and in the riskiest, life-threatening tasks and jobs in the industry. The increase in fatal injuries coincides with the increase of workers covering these jobs.

The most increased work accidents statistics are in construction work.

There was a 6 percent increase in accidents and injuries in construction and extraction work, with a total of 1,066 incidents in 2019. This has been the highest since 2007.

The most decreased occupational injury statistics are from police and law enforcement.

Fatal work injury cases saw a decrease to 24 percent. Total cases went down from 127 to 97 from 2018 to 2019. 

OSHA confirmed that deaths, injuries, and illnesses from work have declined since 1970.

Upholding proper safety protocols and their advancement over the years are the key improvements for all the positive work zone injury statistics. Worker fatalities have decreased from an average of 38 daily in 1970, to 15 a day by 2019. Injuries and illnesses also decreased from 10.9 incidents per 100 employees back in 1972, to 2.8 per 100 by 2019.

Common fatal injuries are not the only direct causes of these injury at work statistics.

Workplace deaths from suicides (307 annual cases), and unintentional overdoses (313 cases) went up in 2019.

There are other less known fatalities in the workplace indirectly related to work such as violence (841), homicides (761), intentional shooting (454), fires or explosions (99), harmful substances (642), electrocution (166), falling objects (241), and getting trapped in machinery (93). Ouch.

Workplace Injury Statistics by State

Top five US States with the most fatal work injuries are:

1. Texas: 608 incidents
2. California: 451
3. Florida: 306
4. New York: 273
5. Georgia: 207

These states were consistent in these top spots each year since 2015 with little deviance. Information was provided from the work injuries statistics annual chart by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition to these are top states with high injury rates in specific categories.

Top five US states with the highest fatal injury rates:

1. Wyoming: 11.5%, highest in Transportation and Utilities 
2. Alaska: 9.9%, highest in Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting
3. North Dakota: 9.6%, highest in Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting
4. West Virginia: 7.9%, highest in Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction Industries
5. South Dakota: 6.9%, Transportation and Utilities

This study on the 2018 state-to-state fatal injury at work statistics rates are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This was also analyzed in a 2020 Business Insider article.

The effect of Covid19 in America’s work safety statistics

Covid19 is a new addition to workplace injury statistics from 2020 onwards.
143,100 American health care workers were infected, with 660 fatalities. Meanwhile, a total of 570,000 health workers were infected and 2,500 died in the whole American continent.

14,970 Covid19-related federal-level cases were filed with OSHA as of May 9, 2021. 2,200 of the complaints were referrals. 15,462 cases are now closed.

Covid-related work injury statistics for US federal jobs are still new. There are no detailed studies yet on which specific states, jobs, and certain demographics to base on.

51,735 state-level work complaints were filed with OSHA as of May 9, 2021. 7,923 of these are referrals; A total of 48,356 cases have been closed.

These statistics on work injury claims for Covid-related jobs are the only main details we have. The US government has implemented comprehensive strategies to track, isolate, treat and combat the deadly virus despite our limited data from employee processing. Workplace Safety Statistics for coronavirus infections at work are unavailable at the moment.

FAQ:

What are some worker rights related to injury and illness reporting?

OSHA states that employees have the right to report about work dangers without fear of retaliation. Employers also cannot get back at employees for reporting – Employees can counter-file a whistleblower complaint within 30 days.

To date, OSHA statistics discussed above include Covid19 complaints as well.

Most common workplace injury reports under OSHA coverage will be handled, except state and local government agencies. The only exceptions are those employed in areas with an OSHA-approved state program through OSH Act protections.

OSHA encourages fearless correspondence for all fatal and nonfatal work injuries statistics cases to be fully disclosed.

What is the most common workplace injury?

The most fatal common work injury comes from transportation-related incidents according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The most common nonfatal injuries are sprains, strains, and tears from the manufacturing industry. World fatal work injury statistics are also highest in the construction field.

How many workplace injuries are reported each year?

2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported in 2019 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in their annual report dated December 16, 2020. 5,333 total fatal incidents were the most recent recorded tally from the 2019 workplace injury statistics.

What is the #1 cause of work-related fatalities?

Falls are still the top cause of worker fatalities, in the construction industry.

What industry has the highest injury rate?

The motor vehicle body and trailer manufacturing industry leads with 6 per 100 workers.

What is the most common nonfatal injury in the workplace?

Work injury statistics cases for injuries and illnesses in the manufacturing industry accounted for a total of 32,470. These are broken down to sprains, strains, and tears at 28%; 16,790 cases of soreness or pain at 14.5%; And 15,380 cases involving cuts, lacerations, or punctures at 13.3%.