Nearly 10 percent of the full-time workers in Utah during 1994 were injured or had illnesses serious enough to report, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and the State Industrial Commission's Occupational Safety and Health statistics section.
That year, 53,600 injuries and illnesses were reported in private industry, a rate of 9.5 cases for every 100 full-time workers. Although the incident rate has been declining for several years, Utah's rate still is above the national average.Nationally, there were 6.8 million injuries and illnesses for an 8.4 case rate per 100 full-time employees.
Released by Jay Bagley, UOSH director for Utah, the report said construction had the highest injury incident rate at 15.6 for every 100 full-time employees, followed by manufacturing at 13.2; transportation and public utilities at 9.4; wholesale and retail trade at 9.4; mining at 7.5; service at 6.7; and finance, insurance and real estate at 3.1.
The injury and illness incidence rate increased in retail trade, the durable food portion of manufacturing, finance, insurance and real estate while the injuries to people in the construction, transportation and public utilities, wholesale trade and service industries declined from the 1993 rates.
Injury incidence rates were generally higher for companies with 11 to 249 workers than for companies with fewer and larger number of employees, the report said. Of the 53,600 injuries and illnesses, 21,200 resulted in lost workdays.
The 1994 findings are the second in a series of three reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' safety and health statistical system. The first was issued last August and covered work-related fatalities, and the third will be released next spring.