Throughout Minnesota as well as across the country, people may be injured in the course of performing their jobs on any given day. Certainly some industries and types of jobs may be naturally more dangerous and expose workers to greater risks than other industries or jobs but the fact of the matter is that anyone can be impacted by an injury at work. In addition, many other people may develop illnesses related to a work situation or environment. Just how prevalent is this? Records from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics gives some insight into this.
In 2015, more than 4,800 people were killed due to injuries related to their jobs. Of those, incidents involving accidents on roads claimed more than 1,200 lives while another 800 people died in incidents caused by a fall, trip or a slip.
In the same year, close to three million people were impacted by injuries or illnesses that were not ultimately fatal. Over 900,000 of those persons experienced problems severe enough to warrant them taking time off of work. In general, the median number of work days missed per employee was eight. Strains, sprains or tears accounted for close to 325,000 injuries or illnesses while trips, slips and falls were responsible for more than 238,000. Almost 156,000 people experienced injuries to their backs related to a work accident or situation.
If you would like to learn more about the prevalence of injuries or illnessess among workers, please feel free to visit the employee accident page of our Minnesota workplace illness and injury website.
