For release 10: (EDT) Thursday, October 29, 2015
Technical information: (202)691-6170•****************•v/iif/oshsum.htm  Media contact: (202)691-5902•*******************
E MPLOYER -R EPORTED W ORKPLACE I NJURIES AND I LLNESSES – 2014
The nearly 3.0 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2014 occurred at a rate of 3.2 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers, according to estimates from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. (See tables 1 and 2.) The rate reported for 2014 continues a pattern of declines that, with the exception of 2012, occurred annually for the last 12 years.
Private industry employers reported nearly 54,000 fewer nonfatal injury and illness cases in 2014
compared to a year earlier. Because of this decline combined with an increase in reported hours worked, the total recordable cases (TRC) incidence rate fell 0.1 cases per 100 full-time workers. The fall in the TRC rate was driven by a decline in the rate of other recordable cases, as rates for both cases involving days away from work (DAFW) and for cases of job transfer or restriction only (DJTR) were unchanged in
2014.
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reportedChart 1. Nonfatal occupational injury and illness incidence rates by case type, private industry, 2003-2014
USDL-15-2086
Among all private industry sectors, the rate of reported injuries and illnesses declined in 2014 only among the retail trade, health care and social assistance, and accommodation and food services sectors. Manufacturing continued a 17-year trend as the only private industry sector in which the rate of DJTR cases exceeded the rate of DAFW cases. The rates for these two case types were unchanged from a year earlier at 1.2 cases and 1.0 case per 100 full-time workers, respectively.
Private Industry Injuries and Illnesses
Injuries and illnesses by type of case
Over half of the nearly 3.0 million private industry injury and illness cases reported in 2014 involved days away from work, job transfer, or restriction (DART cases). These cases occurred at a rate of 1.7 cases per 100 full-time workers, unchanged from 2013. (See table 7.) The rates for the two components of DART cases—DAFW cases and DJTR cases—were also unchanged at 1.0 case and 0.7 cases per 100 workers, respectively. Other recordable cases—those not involving days away from work or days of job transfer or restriction—accounted for the remaining nearly 1.4 million injury and illness cases in 2014, lowering the rate by 0.1 cases to 1.5 cases per 100 full-time workers.
The TRC injury and illness incidence rate declined for each of the individual establishment size classes in 2014. The rate of injuries and illnesses remained highest among mid-size private industry
establishments (employing 50 to 249 workers) and lowest among small establishments (employing fewer than 11 workers). (See table 3.)
Injuries
Of the nearly 3.0 million nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in 2014, 2.8 million (95.1 percent) were injuries. (See table 5.) Among injuries, nearly 2.1 million (75.0 percent) occurred in service-providing industries, which employed 82.4 percent of the private industry workforce. The remaining nearly 0.7 million injuries (25.0 percent) occurred in goods-producing industries, which accounted for 17.6 percent of private industry employment.
Illnesses
Workplace illnesses accounted for 4.9 percent of the nearly 3.0 million injury and illness cases in 2014 and occurred at a rate of 15.3 cases per 10,000 full-time workers, down 1.3 cases from 2013. (See tables 6a and 6b.) Among individual illness categories, only the rate of reported skin diseases declined in 2014,
Chart 2. Total recordable nonfatal occupational injury and illness incidence rates by employment size,
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falling 0.5 cases to 2.3 cases per 10,000 full-time workers. Rates among the other individual illness categories were relatively unchanged compared to a year earlier.
Goods-producing industries accounted for 35.6 percent of all occupational illness cases in 2014, resulting in an incidence rate of 26.0 cases per 10,000 full-time workers—down 1.6 cases. Service-providing industries accounted for 64.4 percent of private industry illness cases and experienced a rate of 12.5 cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2014—down 1.2 cases.
National Public Sector Estimates
An estimated 722,300 injury and illness cases were reported in 2014 among the approximately 18.3 million state and local government workers—for example, police protection and fire protection—resulting in a rate of 5.0 cases per 100 full-time workers. The rate among these workers was relatively unchanged from a year earlier (5.2 cases) but was higher than the rate among private industry workers (3.2 cases) in 2014. Nearly 4 in 5 injuries and illnesses reported in the public sector occurred among local government workers in 2014, resulting in an injury and illness rate of 5.4 cases per 100 full-time workers—higher than the 4.1 cases per 100 full-time workers in state government.
State Estimates
Among states for which estimates are available for 2014, the private industry TRC injury and illness incidence rates declined in 10 states and were relatively unchanged in 31 states and in the District of Columbia, compared to a year earlier. The private industry TRC injury and illness incidence rates were higher in 19 states than the national rate of 3.2 cases per 100 full-time workers, lower than the national rate in 14 states and in the District of Columbia, and about the same as the national rate in eight states. Factors such as differences in the composition of industry employment may influence state incidence rates and should be considered whenever comparing rates among different states.
Chart 3. Nonfatal occupational injury and illness incidence rates by case type and ownership, 2014
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territories, and for the District of Columbia for 2014. Data for establishments in the nine states for which individual estimates are unavailable are collected by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) regional offices and used solely for the tabulation of national estimates. State estimates will be available online on Friday, November 13, 2015; these estimates may also be requested prior to this date from the respective state offices. (See v/iif/oshstate.htm for state contacts.)
Publication Tables and Supplemental Charts
BLS has generated estimates of injuries and illnesses for many of the 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-digit industries as defined in the 2012 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 from v/iif/oshsum.htm, requested from BLS staff at  (202)691-6170,************************************.Supplementaltablesandcharts illustrating trends among incidence rates and counts are also available from these sources. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone:  (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service (800) 877-8339.
Background of the Survey
This news release is the second in a series of three releases from BLS covering occupational safety and
health statistics for the 2014 calendar year and follows the September preliminary report on fatal work-
related injuries from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). A third release in November 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.
All statements of comparison made in this news release were found to be statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level. Additional background and methodological information regarding the BLS occupational safety and health statistics program can be found in Chapter 9 of the BLS Handbook of Methods at v/opub/hom/pdf/homch9.pdf. Employment data in this news release are 2014 annual averages from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program.
Completeness of SOII Estimates
BLS has long acknowledged that some conditions which often are difficult for employers to relate to th
e workplace are not adequately recognized and reported during a calendar year (for example, long-term latent illnesses) and are believed to be understated in SOII illness measures. Following several studies in the mid-2000s questioning the completeness of SOII injury and illness counts, BLS began internal research in 2007 and, at the request of Congress, established an ongoing research program. Initial research conducted between 2009 and 2012 found that the SOII failed to capture some cases but could not determine the magnitude or leading cause of an undercount. Researchers determined that the ability to match injury and illness data across different data sources was impacted by various factors, such as establishment type, the time of case filing, and the type of injury. BLS initiated additional research from 2012 to 2014 that included interviews with employers in four states to learn more about their injury and illness recordkeeping practices and a multiple-year match of SOII data to workers’ compensation records to analyze matching trends over time. BLS is currently funding a nationwide follow-back survey with SOII respondents to learn more about their recordkeeping practices and timing issues that may negatively affect injury and illness reporting to the SOII. BLS also continues to conduct exploratory research on the collection of occupational injury and illness data directly from employees. For more information on undercount research, please see v/iif/undercount.htm.