Delving into the trove of data in the BLS report on 2022 non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report has a trove of data to evaluate the safety of a workplace and guide employers in developing more targeted strategies. It maintains industry-level data for both days away from work and days of job transfer or restriction (DART) and total recordable incident rates (TRIR). While many companies use software to calculate rates, it's helpful to understand how they are determined.

The formula to calculate the DART rate is the number of OSHA Recordable injuries and illnesses that resulted in Days Away; Restricted; Transferred X 200,000) / Employee hours worked = DART rate. The 200,000 represents 100 employees working 40 hours a week for 50 weeks during a calendar year. This standardization allows firms of all sizes to uniformly compare safety metrics. A common mistake is miscalculating employee hours worked and the BLS provides a helpful example.

The formula allows firms of all sizes to uniformly compare safety metrics based on a per 100 full-time equivalent level. Compare your DART rate with the average for your standard industrial classification in the BLS report. A high DART rate can make your company a prime candidate for an OSHA inspection, increase worker comp premiums, and lead to the loss of contracts.

This year's report digs even deeper into the DART metric, providing insights for employers to pinpoint problem areas. For the first time, the report includes estimates for case characteristics and worker demographics and this more comprehensive view will be published every two years (biennially). It is available by industry, occupation, event or exposure, worker characteristics, nature, and musculoskeletal disorders.

Key takeaways of the report :

• Non-fatal injuries and illnesses were up 7.5 percent among workers in private industry. While the total includes more than 2.3 million injuries and nearly 461,000 illnesses, injuries in 2022 rose by 4.5 percent, whereas illnesses increased by 26.1 percent.
• Particularly noteworthy, respiratory cases led to a spike in illness rates from 27.8 cases per 10,000 FTE workers in 2021 to 35.8 cases in 2022 and now represent almost 80 percent of all workplace illnesses. While the number is down from the height of the pandemic in 2020, by contrast, 10,800 workplace respiratory illnesses were recorded in 2019 and 12,100 in 2018. Respiratory illnesses increased 37.5 percent in private healthcare and social assistance, and 66.8 percent in grocery stores.
• The rate of nonfatal injuries remained steady at 2.3 per 100 full-time equivalent workers.
• Healthcare and social assistance had the highest number of recordable cases (665,300). Retail trade (422,700) and manufacturing (396,800) followed.
• Transportation and warehousing had the highest rate of recordable cases at 4.8 per 100 FTE workers. Healthcare and social assistance (4.5) was No. 2, followed by arts, entertainment and recreation (4.2).
• There were 2.2 million cases involving days away from work, and the cases occurred at an annualized incidence rate of 112.9 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent workers over the two-year, 2021-2022 period.
• DART rates were highest for nursing care facilities (10.8), couriers and express delivery services (7.9), scheduled passenger air transportation (6.1), and amusement and theme parks (6.1).
• DART cases were highest in transportation and material-moving occupations, with 835,040 total injuries and illnesses over the 2021 to 2022 period. These cases occurred at an annualized incidence rate of 410.0 cases per 10,000 FTE.
• Overexertion and bodily reaction had the most DART cases at 1,001,440, followed by contact with objects and equipment with 780,690 cases. There were 658,000 cases involving exposure to harmful substances, and falls, slips, and trips had approximately 640,000 cases. During the 2021-2022 period, 520,380 musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) resulted in at least one day away from work.
• Workers aged 25 to 34 had the highest number of DART cases with 759,560.

The report underscores the challenges employers face in maintaining workplace safety and health, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing labor shortage.