U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMPENSATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS

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Percent of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Involving Days Away

from Work by Day of Week Injury or Illness Occurred and Selected Occupations,

2002

by Lawrence H. Leith

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Originally Posted: February 23, 2005

Percent of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Involving Days Away from Work by Day of Week Injury or

Illness Occurred and Selected Occupations, 2002

Day of week

Private

industry(1)

Truck

drivers

Nursing

aides,

orderlies,

and attendants

Laborers,

non-construction

Janitors

and

cleaners

Construction

laborers

AssemblersCarpenters

Supervisors

and proprietors,

sales

Cooks

Sales

workers,

other

commodities

Total

number

(thousands)

1,436.2 112.2 79.0 76.6 42.0 41.9 34.4 28.3 26.1 24.7 24.7

Total

percent 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Sunday 5.5 2.9 10.3 4.6 6.2 1.0 1.5 2.1 6.5 14.2 7.3

Monday 18.7 20.8 15.7 19.8 19.8 22.2 20.3 23.0 17.2 12.6 15.8

Tuesday 18.1 18.6 18.7 18.5 17.1 22.2 21.5 19.1 15.7 12.6 15.4

Wednesday 17.7 16.8 15.2 18.4 18.1 18.6 20.3 20.8 16.9 11.7 15.0

Thursday 16.7 17.4 13.4 17.2 16.0 18.9 18.0 18.7 16.1 17.4 17.4

Friday 16.0 17.6 14.3 17.0 17.1 13.6 14.2 13.8 16.9 19.8 17.4

Saturday 7.3 6.1 12.5 4.6 6.0 3.6 4.1 2.5 10.7 11.7 11.7

Footnote:

Footnotes:

(1) Excludes farms with fewer than 11 employees. Total number for private industry includes all occupations.

Note: Days away from work include those that result in days away from work with or without job transfer or restriction. Due to rounding,

percent data may not sum to exactly 100 percent. • Beginning in January 2002, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

implemented new recordkeeping rules regarding occupational injuries and illnesses. As a result of these changes, the

BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses now provides data on the time and day of the week of the injury or

illness, as well as the number of hours on the job prior to its occurrence. • The table shows the 10 occupations with the greatest number of injuries and illnesses involving days away from work

in 2002--these 10 occupations accounted for one-third of all such cases. Truck drivers, janitors and cleaners, and

carpenters were somewhat more likely to sustain a lost-worktime injury or illness on Mondays than on other days.

Among cooks and sales workers, such incidents were more likely to occur on Thursdays and Fridays. • The 10 occupations shown in this table experienced more lost-worktime cases during the hours from 8 a.m. to noon

than during any other 4-hour period. Although most of these occupations experienced fewer incidents during the hours

from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., cooks showed a noticeable increase during this period. About a fifth of the injuries and

illnesses sustained by nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants occurred between midnight and 8 a.m., reflecting the

24-hour nature of their work.
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMPENSATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS

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Note: For more information on these new data, see the news release Time of Lost-Workday Injuries and Illnesses, 2002--

First Results Announced by BLS (USDL 04-2407), available on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/os/

osnr0020.pdf. BLS will report these data for subsequent years in the annual news release Lost-Worktime Injuries and

Illnesses: Characteristics and Resulting Days Away From Work; the next issue of this news release is due out in March 2005.

Lawrence H. Leith

Economist, Office of Publications and Special Studies, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Telephone: (202) 691-7922; E-mail: Leith.Lawrence@bls.gov

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