Healthcare, agriculture and transportation suffer the highest financial losses due to workplace injuries in the states

When we look at the data on the business cost of workplace injuries across the US, it becomes clear that there are risks across every industry, from healthcare to mining, and education to transportation. Although there are many risks, it’s important to note that in almost every US state the number of total workplace injuries has been on a downward trend during the last 10 years. 

Our research shows that the healthcare and social services industry, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industry, and the transportation and warehousing industry top the rankings for the industries that lose the most money due to workplace injuries, per year. 

Taking a deeper dive

There are over 2.8 million nonfatal workplace accidents and injuries reported by private industry employers in the US alone each year (USA.Gov). To find out what this really costs, and understand the impact across the country, we gathered data from all 50 states to reveal the following:

• The impact on society

• The cost to each industry for workplace injuries

• The states where businesses lose the most money due to workplace injuries

• Total recordable cases of workplace injuries

• The safest states and industries to work

Our findings…

Workplace injuries cost, on average, $1,100 a day. But, how much money are industries actually losing, per year, due to workplace injuries? 

Health care and social services businesses are losing the largest amount of money, compared to any other industry, with a $605,000 loss per year (per 10,000 workers). There are many risks associated with working within this industry, such as chemical and drug exposure, working alongside sharp objects, workplace stress and especially exposure to illnesses from patients. 

Although the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction industry is considered dangerous, especially considering working conditions, it only loses $132,000 per year due to workplace injuries. This is significantly less than the health and social services industry, with a $470,000 difference. The drastic difference exists because the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction businesses are all highly regulated and have multiple health and safety procedures in place to lower the risk of workplace injury. 

The finance and insurance industry is one of the safest in the US, with a loss of only $33,000 per year, due to workplace injuries. This comes as no surprise as these workers spend the majority of their time at work, behind a computer screen. Their biggest injuries are often musculoskeletal – back and shoulder injuries, carpal tunnel, etc. 

Here is our leaderboard to show the industries with the largest financial losses due to workplace injuries:

Which US states are the safest to work in? 

Texas is one of the safest places to work, experiencing the least amount of workplace injuries per year per 10,000 residents, only losing $231,000 on average per year.  However, even though this figure is fairly low in comparison to other states, it’s still a lot of money to be losing due to injuries.

Businesses based within Washington lose the highest amount of money, $396,000 per year, due to workplace injuries.

All in all, across the entire US, in every state, an extremely high amount of money is being lost due to workplace injuries and therefore businesses need to implement some new measures to ensure that this number starts to decrease. 

Here are the states where businesses lose the most money due to workplace injuries, per year:

Here are the states where businesses lose the least money due to workplace injuries, per year: 

Methodology: 

To create a ranking of the industries and states that lose the most amount of money due to workplace injuries, data was collected from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and The National Safety Council. This data provided access to the total recordable cases of non-fatal injuries, the cases with days away from work, and then the split by industry. 

This ranking is based on the US states that made their most recent updated 2020 statistics public, which were then ranked highest to lowest based on these metrics. The cost lost by industries and states was found by analyzing the cost of work injuries from The National Safety Council, which allowed the amount of money that each industry and state loses due to workplace injuries, to be found.

Sources used:

• https://www.bls.gov/news.release/osh.t02.htm

• https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/osh.pdf

• https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshstate.htm#CO

• https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/work/costs/work-injury-costs/