Safety, Health, and Working Conditions

WWC snapshot of http://stats.bls.gov/safety.htm taken on Sat Jun 10 19:48:39 1995

Safety, Health, and Working Conditions

The Bureau's program of Occupational Safety and Health Statistics is mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 651). Under this act, the Secretary of Labor, and by delegation the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is required to compile specific statistics and is authorized to "promote, encourage, or directly engage in programs of studies, information and communication concerning occupational safety and health statistics" and to "make grants to States or political subdivisions thereof to assist them in developing and administering programs dealing with occupational safety and health statistics." The Office of Safety, Health and Working Conditions conducts the annual survey based on employer records of job-related injuries and illnesses, analyzes the results, and compiles supplementary statistics from other sources. The annual survey, done in cooperation with participating State agencies, provides injury and illness information by industry and for the more serious injuries and illnesses information about injured/ill worker and the circumstances of the injury or illness. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries provides information about fatally injured workers and the events leading to the fatality. In the area of working conditions, the Bureau is to "investigate the causes of, and facts relating to all controversies and disputes between employers and employees" (29 U.S.C. 4). The Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 requires the Bureau to maintain a file of collective bargaining agreements "for guidance and information of interested representatives of employers, employees, and the general public." The Bureau's program of studies in labor-management relations includes analyses of wage and benefit changes in major collective bargaining agreements, statistics on work stoppages, and reports on pending labor-management negotiations in major bargaining units. For additional information on programs in this section, call (202) 606-6304.

Current news releases

Historical time series available via gopher

Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses

This survey, conducted by State agencies on a cooperative basis with BLS, provides data on incidence of occupational injuries and illnesses by industry and State.

Data available

National estimates:

Incidence rates and numbers by private industry for injuries, illnesses, and injuries and illnesses combined, with estimates of nonfatal cases; for total recorded cases, lost workday cases, and nonfatal cases without lost workdays: and by employment size.
Incidence rates and numbers of seven categories of illnesses.
Numbers and percent distributions of workers with lost workdays injuries/illnesses by industry, occupation, age, sex, race, and length of service.
Numbers and percentage distributions of job-related injuries and illnesses by nature of injury/illness, part of body affected, source of the injury/illness, and the event of exposure leading to the injury/illness.
A Federal-State cooperative program sample of approximately 280,000 establishments to develop national estimates. Data collected through mail surveys.

Reference period

Calendar year.

Forms of publication

Annual news release containing industry division and 2-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) detail. Electronic access available.
Annual bulletinùOccupational Injuries and Illnesses in the United States, by Industryùcontaining 2-, 3-, and 4-digit SIC detail.
Historical data in Handbook of Labor Statistics.
Articles in the Monthly Labor Review.
State survey data.
Data files on tape, microfiche, and diskette.

Uses

Incidence rates used for comparison by government agencies, employers, researchers, etc. Rates indicate industries needing safety and health attention.
Guidance in administration of Federal and State safety and health programs.
Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries
This system provides details about fatally injured workers and the fatal events.

Data available

Numbers of fatalities and percent distributions by industry, occupation, age, gender, race, and event.

Coverage

All private and public sector workers, including the self-employed, in all States and the District of Columbia.