American workers got hurt on the job at a lower rate last year, continuing a long-running trend.
That finding comes from a new U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. It showed declines in both the private and public sectors, but the level of reported injuries remained far higher on the government side of the work force, particularly local government.
In the private sector, nearly 3.1 million job-related injuries and illnesses were reported last year. That translated into an incident rate of 3.5 cases per the equivalent of 100 full-time workers, down from a 3.6 rate in 2009. It extended the streak of annual declines dating to 2002, when the government started keeping the workplace injury records in their current format.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, manufacturing was the only private sector industry to show an increase.
Workplace experts say official injury rates are lower in the private sector partly because some private sector employees fear losing their jobs or other retaliation from their bosses if they report being hurt. As FairWarning reported last year, U.S. Labor Department officials have sought to crack down on private sector employers that intentionally under-report injuries or discourage workers from reporting on-the-job injuries.
In state and local government, approximately 820,300 injury and illness cases were reported in 2010. That translated into 5.7 cases per 100 full-time workers, down from a 5.8 rate in 2009. In local government alone, the injury rate last year was 6.1 per 100 full-time workers.
State and local government employees also were more likely to report serious injuries. In state and local government, for every 100 workers there were 2.5 cases of injuries or illnesses that required days off from work or a job transfer or job restriction. In the private sector, the equivalent rate was 1.8 cases were 100 workers.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis issued a statement welcoming the downward trend of workplace injuries and illnesses, but said they still occur too often, and she called the rate among state and local government workers “alarmingly high.”
This is the second of three workplace reports released by the BLS annually on fatal and non-fatal injuries. The first, released in August, provided preliminary figures indicating that 4,547 workers died from job-related injuries last year.
In November, the BLS will provide the third report, a more detailed breakdown on injuries and illnesses last year that cost workers at least one day of work.
ROBERT T. NELSON
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