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Expansion of Case and Demographic Data in the SOII

In November 2023, the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) began publishing nationwide all-industry estimates for cases with days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR) as well as cases with the combination of days away from work, days of restricted work activity, or job transfer cases (DART) by detailed case circumstances and worker demographics. The SOII historically included these nationwide detailed data only for days away from work (DAFW) cases. Beginning with the biennial reporting period 2021-2022, the SOII will now publish these new data every two years. This expansion provides a more complete picture of how injuries and illnesses are managed in the workplace.

This factsheet provides background information on the reasons for including DJTR estimates in our routine outputs, how to analyze the new estimates, and how to search for them in BLS’s data tools.

Background

Since 1992, SOII has collected and published detailed data on case circumstances and worker demographics (C&D) for cases that require days away from work. However, since then DJTR cases have become more prevalent. In 1992, DJTR cases accounted for 21 percent of DART cases in private industry. By 2003, DJTR cases accounted for 43 percent of these cases and remained around this level until 2020 when they dropped to 31 percent.

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To learn more about the characteristics of DJTR injuries and illnesses, the BLS conducted a pilot study from 2011-2019 in which C&D data were collected for DJTR cases in select industries from existing SOII respondents. The results of the study demonstrated that data for DJTR cases could be successfully collected and be able to provide important insights into the circumstances leading to occupational injuries and illnesses than estimates based on DAFW cases alone. Following the success of the pilot, BLS began planning to collect nationwide all-industry detailed case data for DJTR and DAFW and determined that biennial publication of the data would allow BLS to collect and publish the expanded data without additional resources and for the public to provide the data without additional burden.

Methodology

Case Types

The case types represented in the 2021-2022 biennial C&D data are DAFW, DJTR, and DART. The definitions of each case type are summarized below.

DAFW: Days away from work (with or without days of job transfer or restriction)
DJTR: Days of job transfer or restriction (only)
DART: Days away from work, days of restricted work activity, or job transfer

DJTR and DAFW cases are the two components of DART cases. That is, DART = DJTR + DAFW

More detailed information on different case types can be found in the Concepts section of the SOII Handbook of Methods.

Measures

The measures of each case type are case counts, incidence rates, and median days. Case counts are the estimated number of cases that occurred in a reference period. Data for biennial C&D case counts are presented as the combined number of estimated cases that occurred in the two years in each reference period.

The incidence rates for the biennial data represent the number of injuries and illnesses per 10,000 full-time workers and are annualized to represent the incidence of injury or illness for one year. The annualized incidence rates are calculated as (N/EH) x 20,000,000, where

N = number of injuries and illnesses during the reference period,
EH = total hours worked by all employees during the reference period, and
20,000,000 = base for 10,000 equivalent full-time workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year).

The median days measure represents the varying lengths of days away from work, days of job transfer or restriction, and the total combined days lost for days away from work, days of restricted work activity, or job transfer. Half the cases involved more days and half involved less days than a specified median. For biennial estimates, the median is determined from the cases collected over the two-year period. DART days lost include days away from work and days of transfer or restriction from DAFW cases and days of transfer or restriction from DJTR cases.

Series Break

The addition of DJTR and DART cases to C&D estimates, as well as the introduction of a two-year, biennial reference period, will result in a series break for the SOII. Data users are advised against making comparisons between the biennial C&D data to single-year series that were published in or before 2020. Detailed information on the timeline of SOII series breaks is available in the History section of the SOII Handbook of Methods.

Accessing Biennial Data

The C&D data for DAFW, DJTR, and DART cases can primarily be accessed through published tables and the Injuries, Illnesses and Fatalities (IIF) database.

Tables

The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Data page contains C&D tables grouped by industry, occupation, and other selected case circumstances and worker demographics. In previous years, these tables were produced annually for DAFW cases. However, beginning with the November 2023 release of data, these tables will be produced every other year (biennially) and contain C&D data for DJTR and DART cases in addition to DAFW cases.

With the addition of these case types in the 2021-2022 biennial data, most C&D tables will include a new “Case type” column. This column has three values – “DAFW”, “DJTR”, and “DART” – which indicate the estimates for the different case types. The exceptions to this are the data tables for data on musculoskeletal disorders (found in the “By Musculoskeletal Disorders” section of the C&D tables page), which present DAFW and DJTR data in separate, side-by-side columns, grouped by measure.

Database

The IIF Databases “Biennial Nonfatal Case and Demographic numbers and rates: selected characteristics” section has two main tools to access this data: One Screen and Multi-Screen. Data users can also access a data profile of a single case or demographic characteristic using the Profiles tool.

One Screen and Multi-screen Tools

The biennial C&D data One Screen and Multi-screen tools have the same functionality as the previous C&D tools with the addition of more data types (for instructions on using these tools, please see the IIF Data Retrieval Guide). When on step 3, “Choose Data Type”, the following options are now available.

1 DJTR injury and illness rate per 10,000 full-time workers
2 DJTR biennial injury and illness cases
3 DAFW injury and illness rate per 10,000 full-time workers
4 Median days of job transfer or restriction
5 DART injury and illness rate per 10,000 full-time workers
6 DAFW biennial injury and illness cases
7 Median days away from work
8 DART biennial injury and illness cases
9 Median DART days lost

These data types correspond to the combinations of DAFW, DJTR, and DART case counts, rates, and median days. After selecting the remaining search criteria, the output will provide a table with all available years of data, including a row for biennial reference period “2021-2022”, if available.

The Multi-screen tools containing C&D data from previous years are also available at the links below or in the Discontinued Data Series section of the IIF Databases page.

Nonfatal cases involving days away from work: selected characteristics (2011 - 2020)

Nonfatal cases involving days away from work: selected characteristics (2003 - 2010)

Profiles Tool

Accessing data profiles for the biennial 2021-2022 data can be pulled using the existing Profiles tool (for instructions on using this tool, please see the IIF Data Retrieval Guide) along with these additional instructions.

On the first screen, select “Biennial Case and Demographic Numbers & rates by case type (2021-2022)”.
On the second screen, select the second year of the biennial reference period you are interested in.

For example, for 2021-2022 data, select Year 2022.

Choose the data type you are interested in. The options correspond to the combinations of DAFW, DJTR, and DART case counts, rates, and median days.
Continue selecting search criteria as usual.

Please note that C&D data from the 2011-2020 series can still be accessed using the Profiles tool by selecting the “Case and Demographic Numbers (Rates) for days away from work cases (2011-2020)” option on the first screen.

For any additional questions, please contact the IIF program at (202) 691-6170 or IIFStaff@bls.gov.

Last Modified Date: April 3, 2024