Head, back, and hand injuries resulting in days away from work or job transfer or restriction

When workers suffer from severe workplace injuries or illnesses, they may take days away from work to recover or they may return to work immediately in a different job or with restricted tasks. In 2016, injuries to the head resulted in higher incidence rates of cases with days away from work than days of job transfer or restriction in six industries studied. In beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, for example, the rate of days away from work for head injuries was 9.2 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent workers. That compares with 2.4 cases for days of job transfer or restriction in 2016.

In some industries, injuries and illnesses to the back resulted in higher rates of job transfer or restriction, rather than days away from work. In general merchandise stores, for example, back injuries resulted in a rate of 31.8 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent workers for job transfer or restriction. That compares with an incidence rate of 21.1 cases for days away from work in 2016.

Injuries to the hand had higher rates of cases with days of job transfer or restriction in beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, general merchandise stores, couriers and messengers, and accommodation.

These data are from the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program. Since 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has studied the details of cases and worker characteristics for injuries and illnesses resulting in days of job transfer or restriction. In 2014, we began studying six new private-sector industries. For details about cases involving days away from work, see “Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses — 2016” (HTML) (PDF).