The Danger of Getting Hurt on the Job
Every year, thousands of Americans get hurt at work. It happens across professions and across industries. While there are certain professions and industries which are more dangerous than others, every industry can benefit from implementing safety programs to protect workers.
Which Industries are the Most Dangerous?
In 2001, nonfatal occupational injuries occurred at an average rate of 5.7%. However, three industries had rates significantly higher than 5.7%. Specifically, durable goods manufacturing had a rate of 8.8%, followed by the construction industry with a 7.9% rate of nonfatal injury. Agriculture, forestry and fishing followed with a rate of 7.3%.
Figure 1-14. Number and rate of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in private industry by industry, 2001. Durable goods manufacturing accounted for the highest rate of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses (8.8 per 100 workers) reported in 2001, followed by construction (7.9) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (7.3). Services reported approximately 1.3 million cases, or 25% of all nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in 2001. (Note: Numbers of nonfatal injuries and illnesses are inside the bars.)
(Source: BLS [2002b].)
In 2001, it was the service industry that had substantially more employees miss days from work because of injuries and illnesses.
Figure 1-33. Distribution of nonfatal injury cases with days away from work and nonfatal injury plus illness cases by private industry sector, 2001. For most private industry sectors in 2001, distribution of the 1.47 million nonfatal injury cases was comparable with that of the 1.54 million nonfatal injury plus illness cases. Services accounted for 24% of the cases in each case category. Manufacturing accounted for 19.6% of injury cases and 20.7% of injury plus illness cases. The difference was greatest for durable manufacturing, which accounted for 12.7% of injury cases and 13.5% of injury plus illness cases.
(Source: BLS [2003c].)
The total number of nonfatal occupational injuries in 2001 was 4.9 million injuries. Of that 4.9 million, the eight industries represented in the table below accounted for 29% of the total number of injuries.
Figure 1-15. Number and rate of total nonfatal occupational injuries in private-industry sectors with at least 100,000 cases, 2001. Each of these eight industry sectors (ranked by occupational injury rate) reported more than 100,000 injuries in 2001. Air transportation reported the highest rate in the group (13.6 per 100 workers), followed by nursing and personal care facilities (13.0). Together, these eight industry sectors accounted for about 1.4 million nonfatal injuries, or 29% of the 4.9 million total.
(Source: BLS [2002b].)
Which Jobs are the Most Dangerous?
Fabricators, operators and laborers have the greatest incidents of job related injuries. However, other types of employees are not immune from getting hurt on the job.
Figure 2-43. Distribution of MSD cases and all nonfatal injury and illness cases involving days away from work in private industry by occupation, 2001. Operators, fabricators, and laborers accounted for 40.8% of all MSD cases involving days away from work in 2001. Comparisons between MSD cases and nonfatal injuries and illnesses by occupational groups indicate only small differences.
(Source: BLS [2003d].)
Job Safety Tips
Every job is different. Even if the job description is the same, the job is performed in different places with different people and under different circumstances. Therefore, a minor in West Virginia may face different risks then a minor in Colorado.
Accordingly, it is important for the management of every job site to perform a job safety analysis. Basically, a job safety analysis should analyze the steps involved in performing a job, the risks associated with that job and how to minimize those risks. This type of analysis can be done for any job including office work.
Nobody goes to work to get hurt. People work for personal satisfaction, for enjoyment or for money and often for a combination of those three factors. Injured workers suffer physically and their businesses suffer from lost productivity. Therefore, every employer should take steps to minimize the dangers of their employees getting hurt on the job.
