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Brittany Cheadle

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Office of Compensation and Working Conditions

The Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology

October 23, 2023

Examining Response Rates in the Survey of 

Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII)
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Fellow Collaborators

 Xingyou Zhang

 Dee Zamora

 Erin Huband

The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Bureau of Labor Statistics or any other agency of the U.S. Department of Labor.
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Road map

 SOII background

 Response Rates for SOII

Importance

Calculation

Overall response rate

By variable

 Nonresponse Rates

 Paths towards improvement

 Discussion
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 SOII – Survey of Occupational Injuries 

and Illnesses

 SOII is the only comprehensive survey 

that measures work-related injuries 

and illnesses in the American 

workplace

What is SOII?
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Importance of Response

 Without participants responding, we would have no data

 Higher response rate leads to a better representation of the 

population

 Higher data quality and accuracy
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Calculating the Response Rate
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Overall Response Rate
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Response Rates by Variable

 Size Code – The amount of employees within the establishment

 Super Sector – Different categories of industries

 State – Fifty states plus D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and Virgin 

Islands

 Government Report Status – Mandatory or Optional

 Ownership – State and local government, private sector
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2011 to 2021 Response Rates by Size Code
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2011 to 2021 Response Rates by Super Sector

Super Sectors

MFG Manufacturing

TTU

Trade, Transportation, and 

Utilities

CON Construction

FIA Financial Activities

OTS Other Services

EHS Education and Health Services

PBS

Professional and Business 

Services

INF Information

LEH Leisure and Hospitality 

PAD Government
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Response Rates by State for 2021
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Looking into Particular States

State A

Ownership 2019 2020 2021

State - 20

87.44% 93.33% 92.55%

Local - 30

75.04% 84.76% 86.26%

Private - 50

70.98% 79.81% 79.04%

State B

Ownership 2019 2020 2021

State - 20

7.28% 13.58% 3.07%

Local - 30

21.90% 19.95% 14.22%

Private - 50

80.38% 76.50% 81.61%

Mandatory State and Local Government 

Responses 

Optional State and Local Government 

Responses
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2011 to 2021 Response Rates by Ownership
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Nonresponse

 Optional state and local governments hold the highest 

nonresponse rates

 Further investigation into nonresponse bias should be analyzed 

with these findings
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Road Map

 SOII background

 Response Rates for SOII

Importance

Calculation

Overall response rate

By variable

 Nonresponse Rates

 Paths towards improvement

 Discussion
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Suggestion 1 – Collection Methods

 How effective is one method over the other? 

 Three main collection methods for gaining responses:

• Phone

• Mail

• Electronic

• Fax
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Suggestion 2 – Perform address refinement 

prior to sending the survey invitation

 Part of the response process model identifies who within the 

business should receive the survey request

 To gain accuracy for the delivery to go to the correct respondent, 

multiple establishment surveys engage in address refinement 

before sending out the survey
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Suggestion 3 – Use more and/or accelerated 

nonresponse follow-ups

 For the nonrespondents, increase the reminders and send them 

out sooner

 Timing and frequency for invitations could lead to higher 

responses
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Discussion
Contact Information

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Brittany Cheadle

Office of Compensation and Working Conditions

Cheadle.Brittany@bls.gov