First-Year Workers Account for Over a Third of Work-Related Injuries

Last Updat­ed on August 11, 2024 

First-Year Workers Account for Over a Third of Work-Related Injuries: Insights from the 2024 Injury Impact Report

A recent report by The Trav­el­ers Cos. high­lights a con­cern­ing trend in work­place safe­ty: more than a third of work-relat­ed injuries occur dur­ing employ­ees’ first year on the job. This sta­tis­tic is based on data from over 1.2 mil­lion work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claims sub­mit­ted between 2017 and 2021, pro­vid­ing a com­pre­hen­sive look at the state of work­place injuries across var­i­ous industries.

Key Findings from the 2024 Injury Impact Report:

• First-Year Work­ers Are at High Risk:
• Employ­ees in their first year on the job account­ed for 35% of all work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claims.
• These injuries result­ed in more than 6 mil­lion missed work­days, under­scor­ing the sig­nif­i­cant impact on both work­ers and businesses.
• High Aver­age of Missed Workdays:
• On aver­age, work­ers who were injured missed 79 days of work.
• The con­struc­tion indus­try had the high­est aver­age num­ber of missed work­days per claim, with an aver­age of 103 days.
• Trans­porta­tion fol­lowed with an aver­age of 83 missed work­days per claim.
• Lead­ing Caus­es of Work­place Injuries:
• Overex­er­tion account­ed for 29% of the claims, includ­ing injuries from lift­ing, twist­ing, pulling, or pushing.
• Slips, trips, and falls were the sec­ond most com­mon cause, rep­re­sent­ing 23% of claims.
• Struck by an object inci­dents made up 12% of the claims.
• Motor vehi­cle-relat­ed inci­dents and caught in/between haz­ards each account­ed for 5% of the claims.

Contributing Factors and Industry Impact:

• Inex­pe­ri­ence and Work­force Shortages:
• The high injury rate among first-year work­ers is part­ly due to inex­pe­ri­ence. New employ­ees may not be ful­ly aware of work­place haz­ards or may not have received ade­quate safe­ty training.
• Work­force short­ages also play a role, as over­worked or under­trained employ­ees are more like­ly to make mis­takes that lead to injuries.
• Main­te­nance and Safe­ty Issues:
• Poor main­te­nance and inad­e­quate safe­ty pro­to­cols con­tribute to the high num­ber of injuries. Com­pa­nies that neglect equip­ment main­te­nance or fail to enforce safe­ty stan­dards put their employ­ees at greater risk.

The Importance of Workplace Safety Investments:

Despite a down­ward trend in the over­all num­ber of injuries in recent years, the data indi­cates a press­ing need for improved safe­ty mea­sures, par­tic­u­lar­ly for new hires.

By address­ing the risks faced by first-year employ­ees, busi­ness­es can reduce the num­ber of injuries and asso­ci­at­ed missed work­days, ulti­mate­ly ben­e­fit­ing both employ­ees and the bot­tom line.

Workers Comp Resources

Need Legal Help ?

844–682‑0999

#Back­ToWorkAf­ter­In­jury #Claims­De­nied #Con­struc­tion­Work­er­sCom­pen­sa­tion #Death­Ben­e­fits #Employ­ers #Flori­da­Work­er­sComp­Ben­e­fits #Inde­pen­dent­Con­trac­tors #Injure­dAt­Work #LawsIn50States #Lawyer #Med­ical­Ben­e­fits #Ore­gonWork­er­sComp­Ben­e­fits #OSHA #RehireAf­ter­In­jury #USDe­part­mentOfLa­bor #Work­er­sComp­Ben­e­fits #Work­er­sCom­p­Claims #Work­er­sCom­pen­sa­tion­Laws #Work­er­sCom­pRights #Work­In­jury­Terms