Washington — Workers in private industry experienced fewer nonfatal injuries and illnesses on the job in 2024 than in 2023, according to Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses data released Jan. 22 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The number of reported workplace injuries and illnesses in the U.S. private sector totaled an estimated 2.5 million in 2024. That’s down from about 2.6 million (3.1%) the year before. The data shows that the decrease was driven by drops of 26% and 46% in illnesses and respiratory illnesses, respectively.
The 148,000 illnesses and 54,000 respiratory illnesses recorded were both the fewest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This release of the annual BLS injury and illness data, as well as the release of the agency’s 2024 workplace fatality data (expected in February), was delayed about two months because of the federal government shutdown from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12.
Recordable incident rate also falls to 21-year low
In 2024, the total recordable incident rate in private industry was 2.3 per 100 full-time equivalent employees – down from 2.4 per 100 FTEs in 2023. The 2.2 injuries per 100 FTEs in 2024 was equal to 2023’s rate.
For illnesses, the incident rate decreased to 13.9 cases per 10,000 FTEs from 19 in 2023. The respiratory illness rate also saw a sharp decrease: to 5.1 per 10,000 FTEs from 9.5 per 10,000 in 2023.
No industry sector experienced an increase in incident rates, and five industry sectors had decreases. Among those was health care and social assistance, which had 3.4 cases per 100 FTEs in 2024 compared with 3.6 per 100 FTEs in 2023.
DART
The No. 1 cause of DART cases (days away from work, restricted or transferred) for the two-year period of 2023-2024 was “overexertion, repetitive motion and bodily conditions” (around 946,000). That was closely followed by “contact incidents,” which was linked to approximately 860,000 cases.
The median time away from work over that two-year period was eight days, while the median time for a job transfer or restriction was 15 days.
The 1.8 million cases involving days away from work comprised 61.5% of the DART cases.
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication