Private industry employers reported nearly 45,800 fewer nonfatal injury and illness cases in 2017 compared to a year earlier, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released last week. The BLS’ Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) tallied approximately 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2017, which occurred at a rate of 2.8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers. The 2017 rate of total recordable cases (TRC) fell 0.1 cases per 100 FTE workers to continue a pattern of declines that, apart from 2012, occurred annually since 2004.
There were 882,730 occupational injuries and illnesses in 2017 that resulted in days away from work in private industry - essentially unchanged from 2016. The private industry incidence rate for DAFW cases was 89.4 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers in 2017. The median days away from work—a key measure of the severity of cases—was 8 in 2017, unchanged from 2016.