Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, 2023

11/08/2024 News Release: Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses--2023

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Friday, November 8, 2024		USDL-24-2268

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EMPLOYER-REPORTED WORKPLACE INJURIES AND ILLNESSES - 2023

Private industry employers reported 2.6 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2023, down 
8.4 percent from 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This decrease was driven by a 
56.6-percent drop in illnesses to 200,100 cases in 2023, the lowest number since 2019. (See chart 1.) 
This was due to a 72.6-percent decrease in respiratory illness cases, down to 100,200 cases in 2023. (See 
chart 2.) These estimates are from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII).

(Charts 1 and 2 appear here in the printed release.)

In 2023, the incidence rate of total recordable cases (TRC) in private industry was 2.4 cases per 100 full-
time equivalent (FTE) workers, down from 2.7 in 2022. This was the lowest TRC rate for this data series 
going back to 2003. Injuries occurred at a rate of 2.2 cases per 100 FTE workers, down from 2.3 in 
2022. The incidence rate of illnesses decreased in 2023 to 19.0 cases per 10,000 FTE workers, from 45.2 
in 2022. Respiratory illnesses occurred at a rate of 9.5 cases per 10,000 FTE workers in 2023, down from 35.8 in 
2022.

There were 946,500 nonfatal injuries and illnesses involving days away from work (DAFW) in 2023, 
20.1 percent lower than in 2022. These represented 62.0 percent of cases involving days away from 
work, job restriction, or transfer (DART). DAFW cases occurred at a rate of 0.9 cases per 100 FTE 
workers, down from 1.2 in 2022. In 2023, there were 581,000 cases involving days of job transfer or 
restriction (DJTR), which accounted for 38.0 percent of total DART cases, and occurred at a rate of 0.6 
cases per 100 FTE workers.

Total injuries and illnesses by industry sector

In 2023, total recordable injuries and illnesses decreased in private industry health care and social 
assistance to 562,500 cases, down from 665,300 in 2022. The TRC incidence rate in health care and 
social assistance was 3.6 cases per 100 FTE workers, down from 4.5 cases in 2022. Cases in 
manufacturing also declined in 2023 to 355,800, down from 396,800 cases in 2022, and cases in retail 
trade fell by 68,800 from 2022 to 353,900 in 2023. The TRC incidence rates for these industry sectors 
were 2.8 and 3.1 cases per 100 FTE workers in 2023, respectively, both down from 2022. The private 
industry transportation and warehousing and the wholesale trade sectors also had a decrease of total 
cases and incidence rates in 2023. No private industry sectors experienced increases in total cases or 
incidence rates in 2023.

(Chart 3 appears here in the printed release.)

Respiratory illnesses by industry sector

The respiratory illness incidence rate in the private industry health care and social assistance sector 
decreased to 44.1 cases per 10,000 FTE workers in 2023, down from 134.8 in 2022. In retail trade, this 
rate decreased to 9.1 cases per 10,000 FTE workers, down from 67.3 in 2022. Educational services had 
an incidence rate of respiratory illnesses of 7.8 cases per 10,000 FTE workers in 2023 (this rate was 
not publishable in 2022). (See chart 4.) 

(Chart 4 appears here in the printed release.)

Injuries by industry sector

The private industry injury rate was down in 2023, but the total injury cases (2,368,900) were essentially 
unchanged from 2022. Injuries in health care and social assistance increased by 27,800 cases to 471,600 
in 2023. The accommodation and food services; arts, entertainment, and recreation; and utilities sectors 
also had increases in injuries in 2023. Injuries decreased in two sectors in 2023. Injury cases in 
manufacturing decreased 21,400 to 326,400 cases in 2023, and injuries in wholesale trade fell 11,900 to 
127,000 cases. (See chart 5.)

(Chart 5 appears here in the printed release.)

Additional Highlights

* Injuries in food and beverage stores increased 6.5 percent to 78,200 cases in 2023, up from 
73,500 in 2022. Illnesses in this industry fell 78.7 percent to 7,900 cases, down from 37,100 in 
2022. The incidence rate of DAFW cases decreased to 1.5 cases per 100 FTE workers in 2023, 
down from 2.9 in 2022. DJTR cases in food and beverage stores increased 21.3 percent to 25,500 
cases in 2023, from 21,000 cases in 2022. The incidence rate of DJTR cases increased to 1.2 
cases per 100 FTE workers in 2023, up from 1.0 in 2022. 
* The injury rate in general freight trucking decreased to 2.9 cases per 100 FTE workers in 2023, 
down from 3.2 in 2022. The incidence rate of illness cases for this industry was essentially 
unchanged in 2023 at 5.8 per 10,000 FTE workers. 
* Food manufacturing had 61,400 total injury and illness cases in 2023. These cases occurred at a 
rate of 3.6 cases per 100 FTE workers, down from 4.6 in 2022.
* Couriers and messengers had 77,000 total cases in 2023, making up 29.0 percent of the total 
cases in the transportation and warehousing sector (265,700). These occurred at a rate of 9.2 
cases per 100 FTE workers in 2023, whereas transportation and warehousing had an incidence 
rate of 4.5 cases per 100 FTE workers in 2023.

Additional Information

This news release is the first of two releases from BLS covering occupational safety and health statistics 
for the 2023 calendar year. The SOII presents estimates of counts and incidence rates of employer-
reported nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses by industry and type of case. A second release on 
December 19, 2024, will provide results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) of all 
fatal work injuries occurring in the U.S. during the calendar year.

The biennial (2-year) case and demographic data series including details of case circumstances and 
worker characteristics was published in 2023 for the period 2021-2022 and will be published again in 
2025 for the period 2023-2024.

Nonfatal occupational injury and illness estimates by industry and case type are available at 
www.bls.gov/web/osh.supp.toc.htm. 

Published SOII estimates of incidence rates and counts by industry and case type are rounded. However, 
estimate changes, percent changes, and significant changes described in this release are determined 
using unrounded data (see www.bls.gov/iif/factsheets/effects-of-rounding-on-estimates.htm).

Incidence rates per 10,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers can be converted to rates per 100 workers 
by moving the decimal point left, two places, and rounding the resulting rate to the nearest tenth. Data 
users are cautioned to account for different levels of precision when analyzing estimates presented in 
this release.

The SOII relies on OSHA recordkeeping requirements, which mandate employers record certain work-
related injuries and illnesses on their OSHA 300 log, including the recording of cases of COVID-19 (see 
www.osha.gov/coronavirus/standards).

BLS has generated estimates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses for many industries as 
defined in the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) manual. For additional 
information on nonfatal injury and illness estimates, see www.bls.gov/iif/overview/soii-overview.htm 
and www.bls.gov/opub/hom/soii/concepts.htm#north-american-industry-classification-system-naics.

All comparison statements made in this news release are statistically significant at the 95 percent 
confidence level. Additional background and methodological information regarding the BLS 
occupational safety and health statistics program is in the BLS Handbook of Methods at 
www.bls.gov/opub/hom/soii/home.htm. Additional data from the SOII are available on the BLS website 
at www.bls.gov/iif, from BLS staff at (202) 691-6170, or by email at IIFSTAFF@bls.gov.

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