Work-related Incident Rate Trends

Total recordable incident rate and the total number of recordable cases decreased in 2024

Tracking Total Recordable Incident (TRI), Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART), and Days Away from Work (DAFW) are valuable to safety and health professionals. However, a complete understanding of an organization’s safety and health performance requires the use of a broader set of metrics beyond the benchmarking data available through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It is worth noting that the BLS data presented in Injury Facts are lagging safety and health metrics (including TRI, DART, DAFW); these are best viewed as more generic indicators (more of a moment in time) that are not necessarily indicative of future performance and can potentially be over-interpreted as reflections of organizational performance, intent and direction. In short, they are the “rearview mirror” of safety and should be reviewed in conjunction with leading indicators of performance as well as examinations of serious injury and illness risk and potential. For more in-depth information on interpreting data on leading indicators, please consult Practical Guide on Leading Indicators from the Campbell Institute.

According to BLS, private industry employers reported 2.5 million nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2024, down 3.1% from 2023. This decrease was driven by a 26.0% drop in illnesses (148,000 cases) in 2024, the lowest number since 2019. The decrease in illness cases was due to a 46.1% decrease in respiratory illness cases (down to 54,000 cases in 2024). Respiratory illnesses peaked in 2020 at 428,700, dropped to 260,600 in 2021 and then rebounded to 365,000 in 2022. 2024 marks the second consecutive annual decrease in respiratory illness cases. Prior to 2020, respiratory illnesses totaled less than 15,000 per year. The rise and fall of respiratory illnesses is the result of COVID-19 related cases (categorized by BLS as other diseases due to viruses, not elsewhere classified). These estimates are from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII).

  • Chart
  • Data Table

BLS published the count and rate of injuries and illnesses annually for the following measures:

Four of the five private sector occupational injury and illness incidence rates published by BLS for 2024 were down and one were unchanged from 2023. The TRI case rate was 2.3 cases per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, down from 2.4 in 2023. This was the lowest TRI rate for this data series going back to 2003. The DART rate was 1.4, down from 1.5 in 2023; the DAFW rate was 0.8, down from 0.9 in 2023; the DJTR case rate was 0.5, down from 0.6 in 2023; and the other recordable cases rate was unchanged at 1.0. Injuries occurred at a rate of 2.2 cases per 100 FTE workers, steady from 2023. The incidence rate of illnesses decreased in 2024 to 13.9 cases per 10,000 FTE workers, from 19.0 in 2023. Respiratory illnesses occurred at a rate of 5.1 cases per 10,000 FTE workers in 2024, down from 9.5 in 2023.

There have been several changes that affect comparability of incidence rates from year to year. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) replaced the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system beginning with the 2003 SOII. Revisions to OSHA’s occupational injury and illness recordkeeping requirements went into effect in 2002. Beginning with 1992, BLS revised its annual survey to include only nonfatal cases and stopped publishing the incidence rate of lost workdays.

  • Chart
  • Data Table

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Note: Beginning in 1992, all rates are for nonfatal cases only. Changes in OSHA recordkeeping requirements in 2002 affect comparison with earlier years.