Government Plays a Numbers Game with Injured and Sick Workers

by Mike Hall, Apr 21, 2006

In 2003, 4.4 million workers were injured or made ill on the job, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported. While that’s a staggering number of workers whose jobs hurt them or made them sick, what’s more frightening is that may just reflect one-third of the injury of all work-related injuries and illnesses.

A just-released study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (subscription required) estimates that BLS figures underreport the real number of injuries and illnesses by two-thirds. That would mean 13.2 million hurt and sick workers in 2003.

Why the difference? The study—conducted by researchers from Michigan State University—used five different databases—the BLS survey and four others. The study also used person-to-person matching in three of the databases and company-to-company matching in all five to get a thorough picture of the number of injuries and illnesses. BLS uses a sampling method rather than the more accurate matching procedure.

Workplace safety experts have long said the government injury and illnesses numbers are far off the mark and several past studies have confirmed the discrepancies.

As the AFL-CIO’s annual survey Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect reported in its 2005 edition, BLS relies “in large measure on employer reports of injury and illnesses” to various federal and state agencies charged with tracking workplace injuries and illnesses. Workplace safety watchdog groups say is it likely that some employers underreport injuries and illnesses, too.

(The 2006 edition that analyzes the newest stats will be released next week in conjunction with Workers Memorial Day activities.)

Also, most agencies do not track workers who aren’t covered by federal and state Occupational Safety and Heath Acts, including federal, state and local government workers, self-employed workers and other categories.

The 2005 Death on the Job says:

Little has been done to address the underreporting. Year after year, all of these factors known to contribute to significant underreporting are ignored, as statistics are rattled off and administration officials take credit for policies that drove the numbers down. Yet these are the same policymakers who are responsible for ensuring a clear and accurate picture of injury and illnesses in our nation’s workplace.

The Journal study uses Michigan as its most recent reporting test ground and examines figures from 1999–2001. According to BLS figures from those years, Michigan workers suffered from an average of 281,567 injuries and illnesses. The Journal study estimates the annual average was actually 869,034.

The Journal report concludes that a “more comprehensive surveillance system for work-related injuries and illnesses would be useful to inform decision making on the allocation of public health resources to occupational health and safety…and to prioritize, target and evaluate both public health and enforcement activity to reduce work-related injuries and illnesses.”

But don’t hold your breath. An official with the BLS’s Occupational Safety and Health Statistics Program told the Bureau of National Affairs Daily Labor Report (subscription required) that a survey using the same methods as the Journal “would be prohibitively expensive.”

On second thought, depending on where you work, it might be a good idea to hold your breath.

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