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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Geographic Information > New York–New Jersey > News Release
News Release Information
16-2332-NEW
Contacts Technical information:
BLSinfoNY@bls.gov
www.bls.gov/regions/new-york-new-jersey
Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses in New Jersey – 2015
New Jersey's private industry employers reported 72,000 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2015, resulting in an incidence rate of 2.7 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) Chief Regional Economist Martin Kohli noted that New Jersey was among 12 states and the District of Columbia that had an incidence rate of total recordable cases (TRC) significantly lower than the national rate of 3.0. (New Jersey was 1 of 41 states and the District of Columbia for which statewide estimates are available. See Technical Note at the end of this release for more information about the survey.)
New Jersey's findings from the 2015 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses include:
TRC incidence rates in private industry ranged from 0.7 in financial activities to 4.2 in education and health. (See table 1.)
Two supersectors, with about 44 percent of private industry employment, accounted for 61 percent of the occupational injuries and illnesses: education and health services; and trade, transportation, and utilities. (See table 2.)
In private industry, the TRC injury and illness incidence rate ranged from 0.8 for small establishments (those employing fewer than 11 workers) to 3.7 for large establishments (those employing over 1,000 workers). (See table 3.)
New Jersey was 1 of 9 states to register a significant decline in the private industry TRC rate over the year.
Table A. Number and rate of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in private industry, United States and New Jersey, 2015
(per 100 workers)
2,905.9 3.0 72.0 2.7
Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction
Cases with days away from work
902.2 0.9 27.7 1.0
Cases with job transfer or restriction
Other recordable cases
Private industry injury and illness case types
Of the 72,000 private industry injury and illness cases reported in New Jersey, 40,900 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 1.5 cases per 100 full-time workers. Sixty-eight percent of the DART cases in New Jersey were incidents that resulted in at least one day away from work, compared to 57 percent nationally. Other recordable cases (those not involving days away from work, job transfer, or restriction) accounted for the remaining 31,100 cases in New Jersey, at a rate of 1.1. In comparison, the national rate for other recordable cases was 1.4.
In New Jersey, construction was the only supersector to experience a significant change in the TRC incidence rate, down from the previous year. (See table 4.) Trade, transportation, and utilities was the only supsersector to register a significant change in the DART rate, a decrease from 2014.
In 2015, approximately 68,800 (95.6 percent) of private industry recordable injuries and illnesses were injuries. Workplace illnesses accounted for an additional 3,100 recordable cases. Three categories—hearing loss, skin disorders, and respiratory conditions—accounted for 32 percent of the occupational illnesses in New Jersey. Nationally, these three categories amounted to 36 percent of the work-related illness total.
State and local government injury and illness cases
Among the state and local government sector in New Jersey, approximately 22,000 injury and illness cases were reported in 2015, resulting in a rate of 5.6 cases per 100 full-time workers. Nationally, the rate was 5.1. Almost 80 percent of injuries and illnesses reported in New Jersey's public sector occurred among local government workers.
State estimates and over-the-year change
For 2015, occupational injury and illness data are available for 41 states and the District of Columbia. Twenty-one states had private industry TRC incidence rates higher than the national rate of 3.0 cases per 100 full-time workers in 2015. (See chart 1.) Twelve states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia had TRC rates lower than the national rate. Eight states had TRC rates that were about the same as the national rate. Factors such as differences in the composition of industry employment may influence state incidence rates and should be considered when comparing rates among different states.
Compared to 2014, private industry TRC incidence rates declined in nine states, including New Jersey. The private industry TRC incidence rate was relatively unchanged in 32 states and in the District of Columbia. Estimates for nine states were not available in 2015 for comparison.
The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) is a Federal/State program in which employer's reports are collected annually from approximately 200,000 private industry and public sector (State and local government) establishments and processed by State agencies in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Summary information on the number of injuries and illnesses is transcribed by these employers directly from their recordkeeping logs to the survey questionnaire. The questionnaire also asks for the number of employee hours worked (needed in the calculation of incidence rates) as well as its annual average employment (needed to verify the unit's employment-size class).
Occupational injury and illness data for establishments in coal, metal, and nonmetal mining industries and for railroad activities are provided by the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), respectively. 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.
Injuries and illnesses logged by employers conform to definitions and recordkeeping guidelines set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Department of Labor. Under OSHA guidelines, nonfatal cases are recordable if they are occupational injuries or illnesses which involve lost worktime, medical treatment other than first aid, restriction of work or motion, loss of consciousness, or transfer to another job. Employers record injuries separate from illnesses and also identify for each whether a case involved any days away from work or days of restricted work activity, or both, beyond the day of injury or onset of illness.
Survey estimates are based on a scientifically selected sample of establishments, some of which represent only themselves, but most of which also represent other employers of like industry and workforce size that were not chosen to report data in a given survey year.
The incidence rates presented in this release represent the number of injuries and/or illnesses per 100 full-time equivalent workers and were calculated as:
    (N / EH) X 200,000 where,
    N = number of injuries and/or illnesses
    EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year
    200,000 = base for 100 full-time equivalent workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year)
Background and methodological information regarding the BLS occupational safety and health statistics program can be found in Chapter 9 of the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/homch9.pdf.
Additional occupational injury and illness data are available from our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/new-york-new-jersey. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202)-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800)-877-8339.
Table 1. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry sector and case type, New Jersey, 2015
Industry(1)(2)(3)
Total recordable cases
Cases with days away from work(4)
All industries including state and local government
Private industry
Goods-producing
Natural resources and mining
Service-providing
Trade, transportation, and utilities
Financial activities
Education and health services
Other services, except public administration
(1) Excludes farms with fewer than 11 employees.
(2) Data for mining (Sector 21 in the North American Industry Classification System, 2012 edition) include establishments not governed by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) rules and reporting, such as those in oil and gas extraction and related support activities. Data for mining operators in coal, metal, and nonmetal mining are provided to BLS by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Independent mining contractors are excluded from the coal, metal, and nonmetal mining industries. These data do not reflect the changes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration made to its recordkeeping requirements effective January 1, 2002; therefore estimates for these industries are not comparable to estimates in other industries.
(3) Data for employers in rail transportation are provided to BLS by the Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation.
(4) Days-away-from-work cases include those that result in days away from work with or without job transfer or restriction.
Note: Incidence rates represent the number of injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers and were calculated as: (N/EH) x 200,000 where: N = number of injuries and illnesses; EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year; and 200,000 = base for 100 equivalent full-time workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year).
Table 2. Numbers of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by selected industries and case types, New Jersey, 2015 (numbers in thousands)
11.9 6.9 4.6 2.2 5.0
0.3 0.2 0.1 0.1 (5)
25.3 15.9 10.7 5.2 9.4
17.6 10.3 7.8 2.5 7.3
Table 3. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry sector and employment size, New Jersey, 2015
All establishments
Establishment employment size (workers)
1,000 or more
2.1 - 1.9 1.9 4.0 -
1.2 (4) 0.9 2.3 1.3 (4)
0.7 (4) 1.1 1.2 0.6 0.3
1.1 - 1.1 1.7 1.0 0.5
4.4 (4) (4) 3.5 4.2 4.6
(4) Data do not meet publication guidelines.
Note: Dashes indicate data not available.
Incidence rates represent the number of injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers and were calculated as: (N/EH) x 200,000 where: N = number of injuries and illnesses; EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year; and 200,000 = base for 100 equivalent full-time workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year).
Table 4. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry sector and selected case type with measures of statistical significance, New Jersey, 2014–15
Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction (4)
3.3 3.0* 1.9 1.8*
* An asterisk indicates a significant difference between the current year and prior year values, when testing at 95% confidence level.
Last Modified Date: Friday, December 16, 2016
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