The number and rate of workplace injuries and illnesses in 2024 — the last year of the Biden administration — reached the lowest number since 2003 according to a report issued last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
According to BLS, private industry employers reported 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2024, down 3.1 percent from 2023. That’s the lowest number of private sector employer-reported injuries and illnesses going back to 2003. The 2024 decrease was driven by a 26% drop in work-related illnesses due to a 46.1% decrease in respiratory illnesses, the lowest number of cases for each series reported since 2019 — the year before the COVID pandemic.
COVID-19 is still a major problem for healthcare workers. Although the number of respiratory diseases have come down significantly since the the COVID pandemic, there were still 54,000 cases in 2024 compared to only 11,000 cases in 2019. 32,400 of the respiratory cases last year were COVID-19.
The Total Recordable Case (TRC) rate in health care and social assistance decreased from 3.6 cases in 2003 to 3.4 cases per 100 Full Time Employees in 2024, although healthcare remains more dangerous than coal mining with a total case rate of 3.1. The retail trade, manufacturing and real estate and rental and leasing sectors also saw decreases in their TRC rates in 2024.
Ergonomics continues to be a major problem in American industry with the highest number of days away from work, job restriction, or transfer (DART) cases caused by overexertion, repetitive motion, and bodily conditions at 946,290 over the 2-year 2023-2024 period, followed by contact incidents with 860,050 cases. Overexertion injuries also had the longest median DART rate at 24 days, followed by transportation incidents and slips, trips and falls at 21 days and 20 days respectively. DART cases are the most severe injuries and illnesses.
While no major industries saw increases in injuries and illnesses, some smaller industries, such as solid waste workers faced higher injury rates in 2024 compared to the previous year. Solid waste collection workers suffered an injury rate of 5 total cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers, up from the previous year’s 4.3 and the 4.7 recorded in 2022. The total injury and illness rate for psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals went up from 6.3 in 2023 to 6.9 in 2024, and restaurants rose from 2.3 to 2.4.
In terms of numbers, health care workers had the highest number of on-the-job injuries and illnesses at 554,000 — over 22% of all private sector injuries and illnesses in the United States in 2024. Health care was followed by retail trade at 340,000 and manufacturing at 333,000.
Public Sector Work Remains More Dangerous
The good news for the private sector did not reach into the public sector. Public employees suffered another 660,000 injuries and illnesses in 2024, bringing the overall U.S. total to 3.15 million injuries. This was a significant 4.6% increase in public sector injuries and illnesses, up from 631,000 in 2023.
Workers in the public sector who are not covered by OSHA in 23 states and suffer higher rates of injuries and illnesses than similar workers in the private sector. The overall private sector total injury rate in 2024 was 2.6 whereas the total injury rate for state and local workers is 4.4. The DART rate for the private sector is 1.5, but 2.1 for the public sector.
The differences are far more stark in the health care sector. State nursing and residential care workers suffer an 8.3 total injury and illness rate, compared to 5.5 in the private sector. The DART rates are 6.1 for the public sector and 3.6 for the private sector. The total rate for hospital workers is 6.9 for state workers, and 5.1 for private sector workers.
But Not All Is As It Seems
Now, a major caveat: BLS depends for this data on self-reported data from employers. Numerous studies have shown that workplace injuries are chronically underreported, and the problem is much greater for reporting of workplace illnesses. Evidence shows that the real number of work-related injuries and illnesses is estimated to be two to three times greater than the BLS reports. In addition, since the BLS Survey of Occupational
Injuries and Illnesses is voluntary, some states do not report. That doesn’t necessarily affect the year-to-year trends, but it does cast doubt on the actual numbers and rates.
Why the underreporting? As the AFL-CIO explains in its annual Death on the Job report
Some of the undercount in the BLS survey is due to injuries excluded from the BLS survey’s scope, e.g., injuries among self-employed individuals, and the design of the survey. But other factors, including employees’ reluctance to report injuries due to fear of retaliation, incentive programs that penalize workers who report injuries and drug testing programs for workplace injuries, suppress reporting. In addition, there are disincentives for employers to report injuries, which include concern about increased workers’ compensation costs for increased reports of injuries; fear of being denied government contracts due to high injury rates; concern about being targeted by OSHA for inspection if a high injury rate is reported; and the promise of monetary bonuses for low injury rates. A 2020 BLS study investigating additional causes of underreporting indicated that keeping of injury and illness logs was not widely prevalent, and that small establishments were less likely than mid-sized and large establishments to keep records.
This report was delayed for two months due to last year’s government shutdown. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (workplace deaths), normally released by now, is expected next month — assuming the government doesn’t shut down again at the end of this week.