Workplace safety is a priority for a number of industries, but worker injuries continue to plague certain sectors more than others. While labor-intensive industries like construction have long been associated with costly injuries, others like retail or hospitality have their share of cases as well. Aside from the adverse consequences to an employee health, companies also suffer financially. According to Liberty Mutual, U.S. companies lose more than $1 billion per week due to workplace injuries. Across certain industries, there are consistent non-fatal injuries that require more than five days away from work. Liberty Mutual's 2019 Workplace Safety Index (WSI) found that overexertion, falling on the same level and being struck by an object or equipment often result in a worker missing time from the job. Related: America's 10 most dangerous occupations with the highest fatal work injury

Methodology

The annual Liberty Mutual WSI is based on information from Liberty Mutual, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the National Academy of Social Insurance. Liberty Mutual and BLS non-fatal injury data are analyzed to determine which events caused employees to miss more than five days. The Index then ranked those events by total workers' compensation costs, which include medical and lost-wage payments. For each of the following eight industry sectors, there was sufficient data to report the top five causes of workers' compensation direct costs for non-fatal claims with more than five days away from work. "The annual ranking helps employers, risk managers and safety professionals improve workplace safety by highlighting [the] financial impact and leading causes of serious work-related injuries and illnesses," James Meredino, general manager for the risk control services at Liberty Mutual, stated in the 2019 WSI. With this in mind, the top five causes of workers' compensation direct costs are outlined above by industry sector, courtesy of the Liberty Mutual WSI. Related: Elevating the consumer experience: Improving outcomes for injured employees

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Denny Jacob

Denny Jacob is an associate editor for NU PropertyCasualty360. Contact him at [email protected].

Catastrophe & Restoration
Workers' Comp
Corporate Risk
Loss Control
Analytics & Data