BLS Announces Electrical Workers’ Share of Specialty Contractor Injuries/Illnesses
Workers in the electrical contracting industry sustained almost 16,000 recordable nonfatal occupational injuries and illness cases in 2021, almost two-thirds of which resulted in days away from work or temporarily switched or changed duties, according to new U.S. Department of Labor statistics.
The numbers, from the agency’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), place electrical workers a distant second to plumbing/HVAC workers on total injuries and illness cases among specific occupations singled out in the broad specialty contractor grouping. In total, there were almost 119,000 cases among specialty trade contractors, 13% of which were recorded by electrical contractors.
In construction overall, a subset of which is specialty trade contractors, there were 169,000 recordable cases total, 64% of which were categorized as involving “days away from work, job restriction, or transfer” (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). In a Nov. 9 news release announcing release of the 2021 statistics BLS called attention to a 10.4% increase from 2020 in the specific category of cases involving “days of job transfer or restriction” for construction.
Outside of that, however, construction didn’t get special attention from the agency in the context of total non-fatal injury and illness statistics coming out of the annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) In 2021; changes in numbers for other industries seemingly warranted more attention. Overall, private industry employers reported 2.6-million nonfatal workplace injuries and illness cases in 2021, a decrease of 1.8% from 2020, BLS reported. That translates to an incidence rate of total recordable cases in private industry of 2.7 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers, unchanged from 2020. The incident rate for electrical contractor workers was 1.8, among the lowest for singled-out specialty trade contractors, and below the 2.8 rate for the specialty trade contractor category. The 1.1 rate for cases with days away from work or job transfer or restriction was also among the lowest.
BLS notes that any historical comparison of the 2021 statistics must account for 2020, when the COVID-19 virus was rampant. It notes that reported respiratory illness cases were down significantly in 2021. The fact that many workplaces were less full in 2020 compared with 2021 also skews comparisons and the calculation of any trends. That is perhaps the reason that injury cases increased by 6.3% to 2.2 million cases in 2021, BLS notes, up from 2.1 million cases in 2020. And the rate of injury cases increased in 2021, with private industry employers reporting a rate of 2.3 cases per 100 FTE workers compared to 2.2 cases in 2020.
As BLS was releasing statistics for 2021, it also was digging further into 2020 statistics, releasing a “Spotlight on Statistics” installment on Workplace Injuries and Job Requirements for Construction Laborers. The report calls attention to 2020 statistics showing that construction laborer fatalities reached a five-year high; that they suffered 12% of all fatal falls, slips or trips in the workplace and nearly 30% of total falls, slips or trips in construction occupations; that their jobs routinely require a comparatively higher degree of strength than other occupations; that nonfatal incidence rates due to exertion higher for construction laborers than related occupations; and that 63% are routinely exposed to heights.
Tom Zind is a freelance writer based out of Lees Summit, Mo. He can be reached at [email protected].
