Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses in New Jersey — 2020

News Release Information

22-2-NEW
Wednesday, January 05, 2022

Private industry employers reported 75,800 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in New Jersey in 2020, resulting in an incidence rate of 2.9 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) Chief Regional Economist Martin Kohli noted that New Jersey was among 31 states and the District of Columbia that had an incidence rate of total recordable cases (TRC) significantly different from the national rate of 2.7. (See Technical Note at the end of this release for more information about the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.)

New Jersey's findings from the 2020 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses include:

• TRC incidence rates in private industry ranged from 0.8 in financial activities and professional and business services to 6.8 in education and health services. (See table 1.)
• Two supersectors-trade, transportation, and utilities and education and health services-accounting for 45 percent of private industry employment, reported 70 percent of the occupational injuries and illnesses. (See table 2.)
• In private industry, the TRC injury and illness incidence rate ranged from 0.8 for establishments employing fewer than 11 workers to 4.7 for establishments employing at least 1,000 workers. (See table 3.)
• New Jersey's private industry TRC rate of 2.9 in 2020 was significantly higher than the 2019 rate of 2.5. (See table 4.)

Characteristic	United States		New Jersey
	Number (in thousands)	Rate	Number (in thousands)	Rate
Total cases	2,654.7	2.7	75.8	2.9
Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction	1,702.0	1.7	54.2	2.1
Cases with days away from work	1,176.3	1.2	41.9	1.6
Cases with job transfer or restriction	525.6	0.5	12.3	0.5
Other recordable cases	952.7	1.0	21.5	0.8
Note: Due to rounding, components may not add to totals.

Private industry injury and illness case types

Of the 75,800 private industry injury and illness cases reported in New Jersey, 54,200 were of a more severe nature, involving days away from work, job transfer, or restriction-commonly referred to as DART cases. These cases occurred at a rate of 2.1 cases per 100 full-time workers. Seventy-seven percent of the DART cases in New Jersey were incidents that resulted in at least one day away from work, compared to 69 percent nationally. Other recordable cases (those not involving days away from work, job transfer, or restriction) accounted for the remaining 21,500 cases in New Jersey, at a rate of 0.8. In comparison, the national rate for other recordable cases was 1.0.

In New Jersey, the education and health services supersector had a significant increase in the TRC and DART incidence rates from the previous year. The trade, transportation, and utilities supersector had a significant decrease in its TRC rate from the previous year. No other private industry supersector had a significant change in its TRC or DART rate from the previous year.

In 2020, 54,300 (71.6 percent) of the private industry total recordable cases were injuries. Workplace illnesses accounted for an additional 21,400 cases.

State and local government injury and illness cases

In the state and local government sector in New Jersey, 16,600 injury and illness cases were reported in 2020, resulting in a rate of 4.1 cases per 100 full-time workers. Nationally, the rate was 3.9. Eighty-one percent of injuries and illnesses reported in New Jersey's public sector occurred among local government workers.

State estimates

Private industry estimates are available for 41 participating states and for the District of Columbia for 2020. The private industry injury and illness rate was statistically higher in 20 states than the national rate of 2.7 cases per 100 full-time workers, lower in 11 states and in the District of Columbia, and not statistically different in 10 states. (See chart 1.) Caution should be taken when comparing rates among different states as some differences can be attributed to different industry composition within each state.

View Chart Data

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Impact in SOII Results

Occupational injuries and illnesses collected in the 2020 SOII include cases of COVID-19 when a worker was infected as a result of performing their work-related duties and met other recordkeeping criteria. COVID-19 is considered a respiratory illness under criteria established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The SOII collects detailed case information, including nature, for incidences requiring at least one day away from work and codes these cases using the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS). While OIICS does not include a code specifically for COVID-19, applicable days away from work cases were included in the Nature code 3299 - "Other diseases due to viruses, not elsewhere classified."

Technical Note

The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) is a Federal/State cooperative program that publishes estimates on nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses. Each year, approximately 200,000 employers report for establishments in private industry and the public sector (state and local government). In-scope cases include work-related injuries or illnesses to workers who require medical care beyond first aid. See the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for the entire recordkeeping guidelines. The SOII excludes all work-related fatalities as well as nonfatal work injuries and illnesses to the self-employed, to workers on farms with 10 or fewer employees, to private household workers, to volunteers, and to federal government workers. For more information on the scope and sampling methodology see the SOII Handbook of Methods.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: [phone]; Federal Relay Service: (800)-877-8339.

Industry	Total recordable cases	Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction			Other recordable cases
		Total	Cases with days away from work	Cases with job transfer or restriction
All industries including state and local government	3.0	2.2	1.7	0.5	0.9
Private industry	2.9	2.1	1.6	0.5	0.8
Goods-producing	2.4	1.6	1.1	0.5	0.9
Natural resources and mining	2.4	2.1	0.9	1.2	0.3
Construction	2.1	1.3	1.1	0.2	0.9
Manufacturing	2.6	1.7	1.1	0.6	0.9
Service-providing	2.9	2.1	1.7	0.5	0.8
Trade, transportation, and utilities	2.9	2.2	1.5	0.6	0.7
Information	1.2	0.9	0.7	0.2	0.3
Financial activities	0.8	0.4	-	-	0.4
Professional and business services	0.8	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.3
Education and health services	6.8	5.3	4.6	0.7	1.5
Leisure and hospitality	2.9	1.4	1.0	0.4	1.4
Other services, except public administration	1.5	1.2	0.9	-	0.4
State and local government	4.1	2.9	2.4	0.5	1.2
State government	3.0	2.2	2.0	0.2	0.8
Local government	4.5	3.1	2.5	0.6	1.4
Note: Due to rounding, components may not add to totals. Dash indicates data not available.

Industry	Total recordable cases	Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction			Other recordable cases
		Total	Cases with days away from work	Cases with job transfer or restriction
All industries including state and local government	92.4	65.9	51.6	14.3	26.5
Private industry	75.8	54.2	41.9	12.3	21.5
Goods-producing	9.3	6.0	4.2	1.8	3.2
Natural resources and mining	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	-
Construction	2.9	1.7	1.5	0.2	1.2
Manufacturing	6.1	4.1	2.6	1.5	2.0
Service-providing	66.5	48.2	37.7	10.5	18.3
Trade, transportation, and utilities	20.4	15.2	10.7	4.6	5.2
Information	0.8	0.6	0.4	0.1	0.2
Financial activities	1.7	0.9	-	-	0.8
Professional and business services	4.0	2.4	1.6	0.9	1.6
Education and health services	32.6	25.2	21.9	3.4	7.4
Leisure and hospitality	5.6	2.8	1.9	0.8	2.8
Other services, except public administration	1.4	1.1	0.8	-	0.3
State and local government	16.6	11.6	9.6	2.0	5.0
State government	3.2	2.3	2.1	0.2	0.9
Local government	13.4	9.3	7.5	1.8	4.1
Note: Due to rounding, components may not add to totals. Dash indicates data not available.

Industry	All establishments	Establishment employment size (workers)
		1 to 10	11 to 49	50 to 249	250 to 999	1,000 or more
All industries including state and local government	3.0	0.9	1.9	4.1	3.4	4.1
Private industry	2.9	0.8	1.7	3.9	3.4	4.7
Goods-producing	2.4	-	2.5	3.1	2.3	0.8
Natural resources and mining	2.4	-	0.9	5.0	-	-
Construction	2.1	-	2.5	2.7	2.0	-
Manufacturing	2.6	-	2.7	3.1	2.3	0.8
Service-providing	2.9	0.8	1.5	4.0	3.6	4.9
Trade, transportation, and utilities	2.9	0.4	1.9	3.7	4.8	3.2
Information	1.2	-	1.6	2.0	0.2	-
Financial activities	0.8	-	0.2	0.9	-	0.2
Professional and business services	0.8	-	1.4	1.3	0.4	0.2
Education and health services	6.8	1.0	1.4	8.7	7.9	10.7
Leisure and hospitality	2.9	-	2.1	3.9	17.3	4.4
Other services, except public administration	1.5	-	-	2.7	1.3	-
State and local government	4.1	4.7	7.8	5.9	3.7	2.6
State government	3.0	-	-	3.1	4.3	2.3
Local government	4.5	4.7	8.0	6.3	3.5	2.8
Note: Dash indicates data not available.

Industry	Total recordable cases		Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction
	2019	2020	2019	2020
All industries including state and local government	2.8	3.0*	1.7	2.2*
Private industry	2.5	2.9*	1.5	2.1*
Goods-producing	2.7	2.4	1.8	1.6
Natural resources and mining	3.4	2.4	2.1	2.1
Construction	2.3	2.1	1.6	1.3
Manufacturing	2.9	2.6	1.9	1.7
Service-providing	2.5	2.9*	1.4	2.1*
Trade, transportation, and utilities	3.3	2.9*	2.3	2.2
Information	1.7	1.2	1.2	0.9
Financial activities	0.9	0.8	0.3	0.4
Professional and business services	1.0	0.8	0.6	0.5
Education and health services	3.7	6.8*	1.9	5.3*
Leisure and hospitality	3.1	2.9	1.3	1.4
Other services, except public administration	1.5	1.5	1.1	1.2
State and local government	5.1	4.1*	2.9	2.9
State government	3.9	3.0*	2.7	2.2*
Local government	5.5	4.5*	3.0	3.1
Note: An asterisk (*) indicates a significant difference between the current year and prior year values, when testing at 95% confidence level.