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If someone were to ask you what the most injury-prone job roles were, you’d likely mention a specific few, like perhaps construction or transportation. However, what do official statistics say about the industries with the most workers’ compensation claims? Would your inclinations about these truly align with employment sectors where workers are most likely to get hurt? Let’s find out.
Private Sector Job Roles With the Highest Injury and Illness Rates
The Insurance Information Institute (III) analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data from between 2021 and 2022 and identified the following professions as the top ten most dangerous for workers:
- Service industry: 538,380 injuries or illnesses (24%)
- Transportation and materials moving: 503,610 occupational diseases or injuries (22.4%)
- Production: 223,840 injuries or illnesses (10%)
- Health care practitioners: 223,680 occupational diseases or injuries (10%)
- Installation, maintenance, and repair: 163,140 (7.3%)
- Sales: 146,310 injuries or illnesses (6.5%)
- Construction and extraction: 146,310 occupational diseases or injuries (6.1%)
- Office or administrative support roles: 101,970 injuries or illnesses (4.5%)
- Management, business, or financial roles: 101,460 occupational diseases or injuries (4.5%)
- Education, community service, arts, legal, and media workers: 54,400 injuries or illnesses (2.4%)
In summary, the 10 industries listed above saw 2,193,360 injuries or illnesses that required employees to miss at least some days of work. This number accounts for 97.6% of all reported injuries and illnesses among all professions.
What Costs Workers’ Comp Payouts Cover the Most
Data compiled by the National Safety Council between 2020 and 2021 shows what injuries and illnesses workers’ compensation payments covered the most. Those causes, along with their combined medical and indemnity payout amounts, included:
- Motor vehicle crash-related injuries: $89,152
- Burn injuries: $52,161
- Slips and falls: $49,971
- Caught-by injuries: $47,076
- Struck-by injuries: $40,104
- Strains: $36,200
- Cumulative injuries: $33,909
- Striking against injuries: $31,150
- Cuts, punches, or scrapes: $24,250
How Often Work-Related Injuries Cause Employees To Miss Work
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and their recently published Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses 2021-2022 report, the following was true regarding those injuries and illnesses that had an onset on the job:
- At least 2.2 million cases involved a worker missing days away from work (DAFW), a number which accounts for 66.5% of cases that necessitated an employee missing days away from work or warranted a job restriction or transfer (DART)
- An estimated 112.9 cases per 10,000 for full-time equivalent workers (FTE) led to those injured or sick employees missing at least 10 days of work
- Some 1.1 million cases led to an employee’s work status being classified as days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR)
- At least 33.5% of DART cases, which equates to 56.9 per 10,000 FTEs, were also DJTR ones, and the median amount of days in that latter status was 15
When it comes to the industries with the most workers’ compensation claims resulting in DAFW, DART, or DJTR (so days missed from work or essentially a reassignment of duties during 2021 and 2022), the service industry and transportation and materials moving industry saw the most injuries, according to the previously cited BLS report.
For example, the service industry saw 538,380 worker injuries, resulting in an average of eight DAFW, 197,670 injuries leading to 14 DJTR, and 736,050 injuries with 10 median DART.
That same report revealed how the computer, engineering, science, farming, fishing, and forestry industries saw the lowest amount of injuries leading to DAFW, DJTR, or DART that year.
For example, the computer, engineering, and science industries saw 18,210 injuries during that time frame, which caused a median of seven DAFW.
Workers’ Compensation Can Help You Recover
Whether you’re employed in one of the industries with the most workers’ compensation claims listed above or not, you likely face a wide range of injuries or illness risks similar to others or perhaps unique to it. You can read more about workers’ compensation specific to certain industries:
- Workers’ Compensation Claims for Agriculture Workers
- Workers’ Compensation Claims for Construction Workers
- Workers’ Compensation Claims for Health Care Workers
- Workers’ Compensation Claims for Manufacturing Workers
- Workers’ Compensation Claims for Transportation and Warehouse Workers
However, if you don’t see your job classification listed, you may want to consider reaching out to your state’s workers’ compensation board or an attorney to find out if you qualify for benefits.