Skip to content Back to Top

Workplace Injury And Illness Rates Decline In The 90S

December 20, 1999
No. 0023

About one in fourteen wage and salary employees experienced a workplace injury or illness in 1998, according to an annual survey of private and public employers conducted by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development (AKDOL) in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.

The private sector workplace injury and illness incidence rate was 7.8 per 100 full-time employees. This rate is the lowest recorded since the data series started in 1972 and continues the downward trend begun in the early 90s.

The lower rates were not unexpected given the industry shifts occurring in Alaska's economy, according to Labor Economist Talitha Lukshin. "Services and trade are a larger part of the state's job base and manufacturing has declined, " said Lukshin.

Workplace injury and illness rates vary widely among private sector industries. Manufacturing, composed mostly of seafood processing and wood products employment, posted the highest rate (17.7 per 100 workers). Construction was next (11.8 per 100 workers) followed by transportation, communications and public utilities (9.8 per 100 workers). Trade (7.6 per 100 workers) led services (5.0 per 100 workers), finance, insurance and real estate (4.0 per 100 workers), and mining (3.2 per 100 workers) in the ranking.

The public sector, excluding federal employees, posted a rate of 5.9 per 100 full-time workers, continuing a downward trend in the 90s. Local government (6.9 per 100 workers) reported a higher rate than state government (4.7 per 100 workers).

Tables are at https://laborstats.alaska.gov/.

Nonfatal Workplace Injury and Illness Rates Decline in the 1990s

Alaska Private Sector, 1980-1998

Incidence rates per 100 full-time workers
wpe4.jpg (22635 bytes)

Alaska Public Sector, 1980-1998
Federal Employees Excluded

Incidence rates per 100 full-time workers
wpe7.jpg (21213 bytes)

Notes: Incidence rate is the number of injuries and illnesses divided by hours worked, multiplied by base hours of 100 full-time workers. Private sector covers only wage and salary employees.

Source: Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research & Analysis Section.

 

Return to Index

###