The Decline of U.S. Workplace Injuries, Improvements in Safety, and Changes in Occupational Composition

Jonathan Cohn and Malcolm Wardlaw

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel method for estimating occupation-specific workplace injury rates using establishment-level administrative data. Contrary to the belief that the U.S. job mix has shifted towards safer jobs, our findings reveal that changes in occupational composition overall did not contribute to the 57% decline in the U.S. workplace injury rates since 1999. Instead, injury rates declined substantially across many occupations, with the largest declines in blue-collar and healthcare support occupations. While declining employment in production occupations and growing employment in high-skilled occupations lowered the aggregate injury rate, these effects are small and offset by other compositional changes.

Cite

@unpublished{cohn0the,
  title   = {The Decline of U.S. Workplace Injuries, Improvements in Safety, and Changes in Occupational Composition},
  author  = {Jonathan Cohn and Malcolm Wardlaw}
}