Over 74,000 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported among North Carolina’s private industry employers in 2015, resulting in an incidence rate of 2.6 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) Regional Commissioner Janet R. Rankin noted that North Carolina was among 12 states and the District of Columbia that had an incidence rate of total recordable cases (TRC) lower than the national rate of 3.0. (North Carolina was 1 of 41 states and the District of Columbia for which statewide estimates are available. See Technical Note at the end of this release for more information about the survey.)

North Carolina’s findings from the 2015 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses include:

• TRC incidence rates in private industry ranged from 0.9 in both information and in financial activities to 3.5 in education and health services. (See table 1.)
• Two supersectors, with about 36 percent of private industry employment, accounted for 48 percent of the occupational injuries and illnesses: trade, transportation, and utilities; and manufacturing. (See table 2.)
• In private industry, the TRC injury and illness incidence rate ranged from 1.1 for small establishments (those employing fewer than 11 workers) to 3.4 for small mid-size establishments (those employing between 50 and 249 workers). (See table 3.)
• North Carolina’s private industry TRC rate of 2.6 in 2015 was similar to the rate in 2014. (See table 4.)

Table A. Number and rate of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in private industry, United States and North Carolina, 2015

Characteristic	United States		North Carolina
	Number (in thousands)	Rate (per 100 workers)	Number (in thousands)	Rate (per 100 workers)
Total cases	2,905.9	3.0	74.1	2.6
Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction	1,571.9	1.6	38.3	1.4
Cases with days away from work	902.2	0.9	20.3	0.7
Cases with job transfer or restriction	669.8	0.7	18.0	0.6
Other recordable cases	1,333.9	1.4	35.8	1.3

Private industry injury and illness case types

Of the 74,100 private industry injury and illness cases reported in North Carolina, 38,300 were of a more severe nature, involving days away from work, job transfer, or restriction—commonly referred to as DART cases. These cases occurred at a rate of 1.4 cases per 100 full-time workers. Fifty-three percent of the DART cases in North Carolina were incidents that resulted in at least one day away from work, compared to 57 percent nationally. Other recordable cases (those not involving days away from work, job transfer, or restriction) accounted for the remaining 35,800 cases in North Carolina, at a rate of 1.3, similar to the 1.4 percent national rate for other recordable cases.

In North Carolina, no supersector experienced a significant change in either the TRC or DART incidence rate from 2014.

In 2015, approximately 71,400 (96.4 percent) of private industry recordable injuries and illnesses were injuries. Workplace illnesses accounted for an additional 2,700 recordable cases. Three categories—hearing loss, skin disorders, and respiratory conditions—accounted for 37 percent of the occupational illnesses in North Carolina. Nationally, these three categories amounted to 36 percent of the work-related illness total.

State and local government injury and illness cases

Among the state and local government sector in North Carolina, 19,200 injury and illness cases were reported in 2015, resulting in an incidence rate of 3.9 cases per 100 full-time workers. Nationally, the rate was 5.1. Almost 81 percent of injuries and illnesses reported in North Carolina’s public sector occurred among local government workers.

State estimates and over-the-year change

For 2015, occupational injury and illness data are available for 41 states and the District of Columbia. Twenty-one states had private industry TRC incidence rates higher than the national rate of 3.0 cases per 100 full-time workers in 2015. (See chart 1.) Twelve states, including North Carolina, and the District of Columbia had TRC rates lower than the national rate. Eight states had TRC rates that were about the same as the national rate. Factors such as differences in the composition of industry employment may influence state incidence rates and should be considered when comparing rates among different states.

Compared to 2014, private industry TRC incidence rates declined in nine states. The private industry TRC incidence rate was relatively unchanged in 32 states, including North Carolina, and in the District of Columbia. Estimates for nine states were not available in 2015 for comparison.

Technical Note

The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) is a Federal/State program in which employer's reports are collected annually from approximately 200,000 private industry and public sector (State and local government) establishments and processed by State agencies in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Summary information on the number of injuries and illnesses is transcribed by these employers directly from their recordkeeping logs to the survey questionnaire. The questionnaire also asks for the number of employee hours worked (needed in the calculation of incidence rates) as well as its annual average employment (needed to verify the unit's employment-size class).

Occupational injury and illness data for establishments in coal, metal, and nonmetal mining industries and for railroad activities are provided by the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), respectively. The SOII excludes all work-related fatalities as well as nonfatal work injuries and illnesses to the self-employed; to workers on farms with 10 or fewer employees; to private household workers; to volunteers; and to federal government workers.

Injuries and illnesses logged by employers conform to definitions and recordkeeping guidelines set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Department of Labor. Under OSHA guidelines, nonfatal cases are recordable if they are occupational injuries or illnesses which involve lost work time, medical treatment other than first aid, restriction of work or motion, loss of consciousness, or transfer to another job. Employers record injuries separate from illnesses and also identify for each whether a case involved any days away from work or days of restricted work activity, or both, beyond the day of injury or onset of illness.

Survey estimates are based on a scientifically selected sample of establishments, some of which represent only themselves, but most of which also represent other employers of like industry and workforce size that were not chosen to report data in a given survey year.

The incidence rates presented in this release represent the number of injuries and/or illnesses per 100 full-time equivalent workers and were calculated as:

     (N / EH) X 200,000 where,
     N = number of injuries and/or illnesses
     EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year
     200,000 = base for 100 full-time equivalent workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year)

Background and methodological information regarding the BLS occupational safety and health statistics program can be found in Chapter 9 of the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/homch9.pdf.

Additional occupational injury and illness data are available from our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southeast. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202)-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800)-877-8339.

Table 1. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry sector and case type, North Carolina, 2015

Industry(1)(2)(3)	Total recordable cases	Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction			Other recordable cases
		Total	Cases with days away from work(4)	Cases with job transfer or restriction
All industries including state and local government	2.8	1.4	0.8	0.7	1.4
Private industry	2.6	1.4	0.7	0.6	1.3
Goods-producing	3.1	1.8	0.9	0.9	1.3
Natural resources and mining	2.7	2.0	1.0	1.0	0.7
Construction	2.7	1.5	1.1	0.5	1.1
Manufacturing	3.3	1.9	0.8	1.1	1.4
Service-providing	2.5	1.2	0.7	0.6	1.3
Trade, transportation, and utilities	3.1	2.0	1.0	1.0	1.1
Information	0.9	0.4	0.4	0.1	0.5
Financial activities	0.9	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.6
Professional and business services	1.5	0.8	0.5	0.3	0.7
Education and health services	3.5	1.4	0.6	0.8	2.1
Leisure and hospitality	3.0	1.1	0.8	0.3	2.0
Other services, except public administration	1.1	0.6	0.3	0.4	0.5
State and local government	3.9	1.9	1.0	0.9	2.0
State government	2.5	1.3	0.8	0.6	1.2
Local government	4.4	2.1	1.0	1.0	2.3
Footnotes: (1) Excludes farms with fewer than 11 employees. (2) Data for mining (Sector 21 in the North American Industry Classification System, 2012 edition) include establishments not governed by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) rules and reporting, such as those in oil and gas extraction and related support activities. Data for mining operators in coal, metal, and nonmetal mining are provided to BLS by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Independent mining contractors are excluded from the coal, metal, and nonmetal mining industries. These data do not reflect the changes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration made to its recordkeeping requirements effective January 1, 2002; therefore estimates for these industries are not comparable to estimates in other industries. (3) Data for employers in rail transportation are provided to BLS by the Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. (4) Days-away-from-work cases include those that result in days away from work with or without job transfer or restriction.
Incidence rates represent the number of injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers and were calculated as: (N/EH) x 200,000 where: N = number of injuries and illnesses; EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year; and 200,000 = base for 100 equivalent full-time workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year).

 

Table 2. Numbers of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by selected industries and case types, North Carolina, 2015 (numbers in thousands)

Industry(1)(2)(3)	Total recordable cases	Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction			Other recordable cases
		Total	Cases with days away from work(4)	Cases with job transfer or restriction
All industries including state and local government	93.3	47.6	25.1	22.5	45.7
Private industry	74.1	38.3	20.3	18.0	35.8
Goods-producing	20.4	11.8	5.9	6.0	8.6
Natural resources and mining	0.6	0.5	0.2	0.2	0.2
Construction	4.6	2.7	1.8	0.9	2.0
Manufacturing	15.1	8.6	3.8	4.9	6.5
Service-providing	53.7	26.5	14.5	12.1	27.2
Trade, transportation, and utilities	20.4	12.9	6.6	6.3	7.5
Information	0.6	0.3	0.2	(5)	0.4
Financial activities	1.9	0.7	0.5	0.2	1.2
Professional and business services	6.7	3.4	2.2	1.2	3.3
Education and health services	14.8	5.8	2.5	3.3	9.0
Leisure and hospitality	8.5	3.0	2.2	0.7	5.5
Other services, except public administration	0.8	0.5	0.2	0.3	0.4
State and local government	19.2	9.2	4.8	4.4	9.9
State government	3.6	1.9	1.1	0.8	1.7
Local government	15.6	7.3	3.7	3.7	8.2
Footnotes: (1) Excludes farms with fewer than 11 employees. (2) Data for mining (Sector 21 in the North American Industry Classification System, 2012 edition) include establishments not governed by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) rules and reporting, such as those in oil and gas extraction and related support activities. Data for mining operators in coal, metal, and nonmetal mining are provided to BLS by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Independent mining contractors are excluded from the coal, metal, and nonmetal mining industries. These data do not reflect the changes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration made to its recordkeeping requirements effective January 1, 2002; therefore estimates for these industries are not comparable to estimates in other industries. (3) Data for employers in rail transportation are provided to BLS by the Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. (4) Days-away-from-work cases include those that result in days away from work with or without job transfer or restriction. (5) Data do not meet publication guidelines.

 

Table 3. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry sector and employment size, North Carolina, 2015

Industry(1)(2)(3)	All establishments	Establishment employment size (workers)
		1 to 10	11 to 49	50 to 249	250 to 999	1,000 or more
All industries including state and local government	2.8	1.1	2.5	3.4	2.9	3.6
Private industry	2.6	1.1	2.4	3.4	2.6	3.0
Goods-producing	3.1	1.5	3.2	3.9	2.4	3.5
Natural resources and mining	2.7	-	1.5	2.8	6.2	-
Construction	2.7	1.5	3.2	2.6	2.9	-
Manufacturing	3.3	1.5	3.6	4.4	2.3	3.5
Service-providing	2.5	1.0	2.2	3.3	2.7	2.8
Trade, transportation, and utilities	3.1	1.1	2.4	4.0	4.2	4.6
Information	0.9	(4)	-	1.1	1.0	0.3
Financial activities	0.9	-	1.9	1.2	0.4	0.4
Professional and business services	1.5	-	2.3	1.6	1.1	0.5
Education and health services	3.5	-	2.4	3.9	4.0	4.5
Leisure and hospitality	3.0	-	2.2	4.0	5.7	3.4
Other services, except public administration	1.1	-	0.6	3.5	-	-
State and local government	3.9	-	4.2	3.1	4.2	4.4
State government	2.5	(4)	3.0	2.2	2.5	2.5
Local government	4.4	-	4.4	3.1	4.9	6.0
Footnotes: (1) Excludes farms with fewer than 11 employees. (2) Data for mining (Sector 21 in the North American Industry Classification System, 2012 edition) include establishments not governed by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) rules and reporting, such as those in oil and gas extraction and related support activities. Data for mining operators in coal, metal, and nonmetal mining are provided to BLS by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Independent mining contractors are excluded from the coal, metal, and nonmetal mining industries. These data do not reflect the changes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration made to its recordkeeping requirements effective January 1, 2002; therefore estimates for these industries are not comparable to estimates in other industries. (3) Data for employers in rail transportation are provided to BLS by the Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. (4) Data do not meet publication guidelines.
Note: Dashes indicate data not available. Incidence rates represent the number of injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers and were calculated as: (N/EH) x 200,000 where: N = number of injuries and illnesses; EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year; and 200,000 = base for 100 equivalent full-time workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year).

 

Table 4. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry sector and selected case type with measures of statistical significance, North Carolina, 2014–15

Industry(1)(2)(3)	Total recordable cases		Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction (4)
	2014	2015	2014	2015
All industries including state and local government	2.9	2.8	1.5	1.4
Private industry	2.7	2.6	1.4	1.4
Goods-producing	3.3	3.1	1.8	1.8
Natural resources and mining	2.5	2.7	1.6	2.0
Construction	3.3	2.7	1.8	1.5
Manufacturing	3.3	3.3	1.9	1.9
Service-providing	2.5	2.5	1.3	1.2
Trade, transportation, and utilities	3.1	3.1	1.9	2.0
Information	1.3	0.9	0.6	0.4
Financial activities	0.7	0.9	0.2	0.3
Professional and business services	1.4	1.5	0.7	0.8
Education and health services	3.6	3.5	1.5	1.4
Leisure and hospitality	2.8	3.0	1.0	1.1
Other services, except public administration	1.4	1.1	1.0	0.6
State and local government	3.8	3.9	1.8	1.9
State government	2.7	2.5*	1.4	1.3*
Local government	4.4	4.4	2.0	2.1
Footnotes: (1) Excludes farms with fewer than 11 employees. (2) Data for mining (Sector 21 in the North American Industry Classification System, 2012 edition) include establishments not governed by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) rules and reporting, such as those in oil and gas extraction and related support activities. Data for mining operators in coal, metal, and nonmetal mining are provided to BLS by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Independent mining contractors are excluded from the coal, metal, and nonmetal mining industries. These data do not reflect the changes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration made to its recordkeeping requirements effective January 1, 2002; therefore estimates for these industries are not comparable to estimates in other industries. (3) Data for employers in rail transportation are provided to BLS by the Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. (4) Days-away-from-work cases include those that result in days away from work with or without job transfer or restriction.
Incidence rates represent the number of injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers and were calculated as: (N/EH) x 200,000 where: N = number of injuries and illnesses; EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year; and 200,000 = base for 100 equivalent full-time workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year). * An asterisk indicates a significant difference between the current year and prior year values, when testing at 95% confidence level.