1

Median number of workdays lost due to work injury or illness by age, 1993

SOURCE: BLS, Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses--cases involving

days away from work

All ages 16 to 19 20 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 and over

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Days

Issues

in Labor Statistics U.S. Department of Labor

Bureau of Labor Statistics

10 or 11 days to recuperate from overexertion injuries incurred while maneuvering objects, compared with 6 or 7 days for

younger workers. Absences also lasted 2

or 3 days longer for older workers struck

by falling, swinging or slipping objects;

striking against stationary objects; or bending, climbing, crawling, reaching, or twisting when such movement in itself was the

source of injury.

The cost implications of severe injuries to older workers are especially troublesome for the future, given that their labor

force growth rate of 3.3 percent a year is

expected to be triple the annual rate for

the total civilian labor force between 1994

and 2005. By year 2005, BLS estimates

15 percent of the labor force will be 55

years and over, compared with 12 percent

in 1994. Thus, older workers’ share of all

serious injuries, currently at 8 percent, is

likely to increase by 2005, even though

their risk of injury is relatively low.

Older Workers’ Injuries Entail Lengthy

Absences From Work

The 10 million Americans aged 55

years and over who work for wages and

salaries in the private sector are a htird

less likely than are younger workers to be

hurt seriously enough to lose worktime.

But when they are seriously injured, older

workers typically require 2 weeks to recover before returning to work, twice the

recuperation time younger workers need.

The duration of absence from work due

to a work injury doubles from a median of

4 or 5 days for injuries to workers under

age 35 to a 10-day median for those involving workers 55 years and older (see

chart).1 At least two factors contribute to

longer recuperation periods for older workers.

First, they sustain especially disabling

conditions, such as broken bones and multiple injuries, more often than younger

workers do. Fractures, for example, made

up 11 percent of injuries suffered by workers 55 years and older, compared with

about 5 percent for workers under age 55.

Second, even the same disabling condition

required a longer recuperation for older

workers. For example, their fractures resulted in a median absence of 30 days compared with 18 days for younger workers.

Examining ways that older workers

were disabled on the job also provides

clues to their relatively lengthy absences

from work. They were most commonly dis1 1

Median days away from work—the key

measure of injury duration used here—designates

the point at which half the total cases for the category studied involved more days and half involved fewer days. In this summary, the term “injury” also covers a relatively small number

(117,000) of “illnesses,” reported among workers of all ages sustaining some 2 million cases with

days away from work in 1993.

abled by a fall to the floor or other surface

that had supported them prior to the fall.

Such falls accounted for 17 percent of the

1993 case total for workers 55 years and

over, compared with 8 percent for younger

workers. (See table.) Further, older workers take longer to return to work after such

falls (a median of 11 days) than do younger

workers (6 days). The difference in injury

duration partly reflects how often such falls

result in fractures: about a fourth of the

time for older workers while only in about

an eighth of the cases do younger workers

sustain fractures from falls. Moreover,

older workers took 35 days to recover from

a fracture sustained by falling to the floor

or other non-elevated surfaces, compared

with 25 days for workers under age 55.

Other major injuries also resulted in

longer absences from work for older workers than for younger ones. The accompanying table shows, for example, that workers 55 years and older typically required

Summary 96-6

April 1996
Percent distribution Median days losts

Common disabling events resulting in lost worktime by age group, 1993

Workers, Workers, Workers, days losts

55 years under 55 years under

 and over2 55 years2 and over 55 years

 All events ........................................................................................... 100 100 10 days 5 days

Fall to floor, walkway, ground, or other surface .................................... 17 8 11 6

Overexertion while lifting object ............................................................ 13 17 11 6

Struck against stationary object ........................................................... 5 4 5 3

Struck by falling object ......................................................................... 4 5 7 4

Bending, climbing, crawling reaching, twisting ...................................... 4 4 7 5

Overexertion in pulling or pushing object ............................................. 4 4 10 7

Struck by swinging or slipping object (e.g., knife) ................................ 3 4 6 3

Overexertion in holding, carrying, turning, or wielding object ................ 3 3 10 6

All other events..................................................................................... 48 51 — —

Worker safety data

The Bureau’s 1993 Survey of Nonfatal

Occupational Injuries and Illnesses provided the information in this summary report on cases involving lost worktime, including age group, how the injury occurred,

the incidence of fractures, and the duration of injury. A companion program, the

BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries,

shows that older workers also face relatively

high risks of fatal work injuries. For more

information on these programs, contact the

Office of Safety, Health and Working Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 Massachusetts Ave. NE., Room 3180, Washington DC 20212, (202) 606-6168.

Information in this report is available

to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202)606-7828; TDD

phone: (202)606-5897; TDD message referral phone: 1-800-326-2577. This material is in the public domain and, with appropriate credit, may be reproduced

without permission.

1

Based on three-digit categories stipulated in the BLS Event or Exposure classification structure used to code cases with days away from

work.

 2

About 170,000 days-away-from-work cases were reported for

workers, 55 years and over and about 2,031,000 cases for workers

under age 55. Excluded from this table were about 52,000 cases for

which age of worker was not available.

 3The median designates the point at which half the total cases

for the age group involved more days and half involved fewer days.

Dash indicates that a median was not computed.

Disabling event1

U.S. Department of Labor

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Washington, DC 20212

Official Business

Penalty for Private use, $300

FIRST CLASS MAIL

Postage and Fees Paid

U.S. Department of Labor

Permit No. G-738
Median number of workdays lost due to work injury or illness by age, 1993

SOURCE: BLS, Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses--cases involving

days away from work

All ages 16 to 19 20 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 and over 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Days