Did you know, workplace injuries cost employers nearly $60 billion a year?
Nearly three million on-the-job injuries occur each year (and more than one-third of those injuries required time off from work in order to recover)?
Did you know 1.2 million missed work days were reported in 2017 due to injuries? Or that workers took an average of eight days away from the workplace to recuperate from these injuries?
These jarring statistics come directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and present an accurate — and frightening — picture of where we’re at when it comes to injuries in the workplace.
Why are there so many workplace injuries?
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), there are four reasons we’re seeing more injuries in the American workforce:
1. The nature of work continues to evolve. The economy continues to shift from one based on manufacturing to service. And from a workforce that was previously more “fixed” to one that’s now much more mobile.
2. Work activities are increasingly automated. Technology, computers, and robotics are being integrated into our workplaces, often introducing new and different hazards. And recently, at an alarmingly fast pace.
3. More diversity in the workforce. People from different backgrounds and cultures are working alongside each other more frequently — often speaking different languages and creating communication barriers in the process.
4. An increasingly aging workforce. The rise of sedentary work and lifestyles means that some workers are at higher risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders.
So, quite a few people are being injured on-the-job. It’s costing employers billions of dollars a year. And, it’s due to an increasingly more diverse, automated and aging workforce.
Since those factors listed above likely aren’t changing anytime soon, employers need to start thinking proactively. And they need to start thinking about injury prevention.
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