CASE CHARACTERISTICS AND DEMOGRAPHIC DATA HIGHLIGHTS, 2005

CASE CHARACTERISTICS AND DEMOGRAPHIC DATA HIGHLIGHTS, 2006

Private Sector

There were 39,610 cases involving days away from work due to workplace injuries and illnesses in New Jersey’s private industry sector in 2006. Since 2003, this figure has decreased by seven percent, from 42,600 cases with days away. Lost time cases occurred at a rate of 145.3 cases per 10,000 full-time workers within New Jersey’s private industry sector. The following highlights show how the cases involving days away from work are distributed among various characteristics of the injured worker and the injury or illness case.

Characteristics of the Injured/Ill NJ Private Sector Worker:

Men made up 63 percent of the lost-time cases in New Jersey’s private industry. The incidence rate for lost time cases among male workers was 153.7 cases per 10,000 full-time workers, which is greater than that of private industry as a whole. This means that men sustained injuries involving days away from work more frequently then their female counterparts in the private sector.
Lost time cases among men were also slightly more severe than cases among women. Men required a median of 9 days to recover from lost-time cases, while women returned to private sector jobs after a median of 7 days recovery. The overall private industry median days lost was 8 in New Jersey for 2006.
Nearly half (48%) of the private industry lost time cases affected middle-aged workers – between 35 and 54 years old. The incidence rates for age categories 35 - 44 and 45 - 54 were above the overall private industry rate. Workers between 16 and 19 years of age were injured or ill on the job at a rate of 191.7 lost time cases per 10,000 full-time workers, yet these workers recovered the quickest with a median days lost of only 3. Workers between 20 and 24 years old had an incidence rate of 170.2, which is still greater than the private industry average, but also with median days lost (5) that is lower than the overall median of 8 for all age groups combined. The middle-aged workers (35-54 years old) who had the largest percentage of lost time cases also required the longest recovery time, with median days lost of 9.
Over one-quarter of the injuries and illnesses occurred among workers with less than 1 year of service with their employer. New Jersey private industry workers with at least 1 year of service with their employer made up 70 percent of the cases involving days away from work in 2006. These cases were somewhat evenly divided between the categories of 1-5 years of service (34%) and more than 5 years of service (36%). The median days (10) lost due to injury or illness was greatest among workers with 5 or more years of service.
Two categories of job titles had the highest incidence rates for lost-time cases. Transportation and material moving occupations (includes hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, as well as heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers) had an incidence rate of 388.9 cases per 10,000 full-time workers, which is more than two and one half times greater than the overall private industry rate of 145.3. Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants are part of a larger category of healthcare support occupations, which had an incidence rate of 366.8 cases per 10,000 full-time workers. Other occupation groups with an incidence rate that was more than 1.5 times that of private industry in general were construction and extraction occupations (275.3), installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (274.7), production occupations (242.1), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (235.0). In all of these occupational categories, except healthcare support occupations (median 5 days lost), the median days lost was greater than the private industry average of 8.
Three occupations within New Jersey’s private sector have had the highest number of cases involving days away from work since 2003. These occupations are hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (11% of lost-time cases), heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (6%), and nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants (4%). Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers required an average of 11 days away from work to recover from injuries and illnesses. The median days lost for hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers and for nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants were 7 and 6, respectively.

Characteristics of the Injury/Illness:

Injuries and illnesses are described by four characteristics – nature of injury or illness, part of body, the source of the injury or illness, and the event or exposure. These characteristics, when looked at together, give a clear picture of the injury or illness and how it happened. The nature of injury or illness is the diagnosis or medical finding. When the nature is combined with the part of body affected, we can see what medical condition has been identified as a result of the accident or exposure. Examples of common nature/part combinations include sprained back, cut finger, or carpal tunnel syndrome to the nerves in the wrist. The source of the injury or illness is the object that directly caused the nature of the injury or illness. The event or exposure describes how the accident happened. Overexertion in lifting containers and falls to the floor or ground surfaces are common examples of source/event combinations.

Sprains and strains are by far the most frequently occurring nature of work-related injury/illness, accounting for 36 percent of the private sector cases with days away from work. Sprains and strains had a median of 9 days lost per case. The nature of injury or illness with the second highest percentage of cases in 2006 was cuts/lacerations, making up 9.4 percent of cases with days lost. The nature of injuries or illnesses exhibits much the same pattern in the other major industry sectors. However, in the construction industry sector, the second leading nature of injury was fractures, making up 9 percent of that industry’s cases. This is especially significant because of the extended average healing time of 25 days.

Other natures of injury or illness with high median days away from work were carpal tunnel syndrome (51 days) and amputations (29 days), but these two combined make up less than one percent of the total private industry cases.

The body part most frequently injured in 2006 was the back, making up 22 percent of the private industry cases resulting in days away from work. Fingers were the second leading part of body injured, accounting for 10 percent of all lost-time cases. This pattern was mirrored in most industries, except in manufacturing and leisure and hospitality, where the finger was most frequently injured. Median days lost for the back was 9 days, just above the average of 8 for all private sector cases. Finger injuries were less severe, resulting in a median of 5 days lost. Shoulder injuries (14 days) resulted in the longest absences.
The most common sources of injury or illness in 2006 were floors, walkways, and ground surfaces, worker motion or position, and containers, accounting for a total of nearly half of the cases involving days away from work. Floors, walkways, and ground surfaces had the highest percentage of cases (18%), and also shared the highest median days lost (10) with vehicles among all of the source categories. The source of injury or illness varies among the industry sectors. Within three different industries - manufacturing (16%), trade, transportation, and utilities (23%), and financial activities (41%) - containers were the most prevalent source of injury or illness lost-time cases. In education and health services, 26 percent of the cases were caused by health care patients.
More than half of New Jersey’s private sector cases involving days away from work were caused by contact with objects and equipment or overexertion. Contact with objects and equipment (29% of lost time cases) includes being struck by an object, a worker who struck him/herself against an object, or who is caught in equipment or an object. Almost half of the overexertion cases were due to overexertion in lifting. These injury/illness event categories, which characterize how the accident or exposure happened, resulted in a wide range of median days lost. Cases caused by repetitive motion made up only one percent of the private industry lost-time cases, but resulted in a median of 29 days away from work.
Results from 2006 work-related private sector injuries and illnesses show that the most common time for an accident was in the morning. Thirty-two percent of cases involving days away from work occurred between 8 A.M. and noon and 20 percent of cases occurred between noon and 4 P.M. Furthermore, 21 percent of cases occurred when the affected worker was on the job between 2 and 4 hours before sustaining the injury or illness. Eighty-six percent of all private industry lost-time accidents or exposures took place during a weekday.

Public Sector – State and Local Government

New Jersey’s public sector workers sustained 12,980 cases involving days away from work in 2006. The number of lost-time cases in state government fell from 3,920 in 2005 to 3,660 in 2006, and the number of local government lost-time cases decreased from 9,680 to 9,320 between 2005 and 2006. These continuing downward trends in government sector lost-time cases indicate that safety and health prevention efforts are working. A median of 10 days of work were lost by state government workers while local government employees returned to work after a median of 6 days lost due to work-related injuries and illnesses.

The following highlights show how the cases involving days away from work are distributed among various characteristics of the injured worker and the injury or illness case. While the type of work performed in the public sector is often different from the private sector, many of the worker injury and illness characteristics are similar. (Incidence rates for government sector demographics data are not available.)

Characteristics of the Injured/Ill NJ Public Sector Worker:

Men made up half of the state government lost-time cases, while accounting for two-thirds of the local government cases involving lost workdays.
Distribution of New Jersey’s public sector cases involving days away from work by age group in 2006 is similar for state and local government. Workers between 35 and 44 years old sustained the highest percentage of cases, with 31 percent of state government cases and 28 percent of local government lost-time cases in 2006.
Government workers who have been with their employer for one year or more made up the majority of public sector cases. Ninety-three percent of state government lost-time cases affected workers with one or more years of service with their employer. Fifty-seven percent of the lost-time cases in state government were among workers with more than five years of service with their employer. Local government workers with at least a year of service made up 90% of that sector’s cases involving days away from work in New Jersey. Injured workers with more than five years of service with their local government employer accounted for 64 percent of the lost-time cases in that sector.
State government workers with the highest percentage of lost-workday cases were correctional officers and jailors (16%), psychiatric aides (10%), and transit and intercity bus drivers (8%). Of these three occupations, correctional officers and jailers (20) and transit and intercity bus drivers (14) lost a median number of days that was greater than the overall state government median of 10.
Three occupations within local government combined to make up more than one-third of the cases involving days away from work. These occupations were police and sheriff’s patrol officers (1,400 lost-time cases), janitors and cleaners (1,070), and elementary school teachers, except special education (830). The median days lost for these occupations were either at or below the overall median of 6 days lost for local government in 2006.

Characteristics of the Injury/Illness:

Sprains and strains were the most frequently occurring type of lost-workday cases in both government sectors, making up 30 percent of state government cases with days away from work and 36 percent of local government cases in 2006. Median days lost for sprains was 13 in state government and 7 in local government – both higher than the average median days lost for the sectors.
The back was the most often injured part of the body within the government sectors, accounting for 14 percent of state government lost-time cases and 18 percent of local government injuries and illnesses with days away from work.
The source of the highest percentage of lost-time cases in both state and local government was floors, walkways, ground surfaces, with 21 percent and 24 percent of cases, respectively. Median days lost for injuries and illnesses caused by floors, walkways, and ground surfaces were higher in both state (13) and local (7) government than the general sector averages (all sources combined) of 10 and 6, respectively. Within state government, the second largest percentage of cases with lost time was caused by health care patients. Worker motion or position was the second most frequently occurring source of injury or illness with lost time in local government.
Assaults and violent acts by a person was the leading cause of state government sector cases, making up 22 percent of the state government cases involving days away from work in New Jersey. In local government, overexertion was the injury or illness event that caused the largest percentage of lost-time cases, making up 19 percent of the cases involving days away from work in 2006. The event category with the highest median days lost in state government was fall to lower level, with a median of 17 days lost per case. Falls to lower level within state government made up 7 percent of total state government lost-time cases. Within local government, the longest average recovery time for an event category was for repetitive motion cases (10 median days lost). There were 30 local government repetitive motion cases in 2006.