Travelers released its “Injury Impact Report” this week in the form of an infographic that makes otherwise boring data seem much more interesting. But the findings of this report might very well have been interesting enough without the pretty pictures. That’s because it confirms something we might have guessed anyway – new workers get injured on the job more than their more experienced coworkers – and may provide a clue about a potential increase in workers’ compensation claims due to on-the-job injuries starting later in 2022 and continuing into 2023.
Here’s how Travelers introduced the report:
“As a leading workers’ compensation carrier, Travelers knows firsthand that injuries can occur in any business, regardless of industry or size. To provide businesses with a better understanding of what’s happening in their workplaces, Travelers recently analyzed more than 1.5 million workers’ compensation claims submitted from 2015 through 2019. The resulting insights can help businesses develop and enhance workplace safety practices to create safer environments for all employees.”
Right at the top of the infographic, Travelers shows us that 35 percent of workplace injuries happened during a worker’s first year on the job. This statistic is not surprising considering newer workers lack experience, and also have had less training, both of which help longer-term employees from getting hurt at work.
Further, Travelers tells us that first-year injuries result in more than 6 million missed workdays, representing 37 percent of all missed workdays.
As one would guess, the rate of injury occurrence varies by industry type, but the industries most affected by first-year injuries, according to Travelers are:
- Transportation — 39% of claims and 41% of claim costs
- Services — 43% of claims and 38% of claim costs.
- Construction — 48% of claims and 52% of claim costs.
- Restaurants — 53% of claims and 47% of claim costs.
What can the report tell us about whether workers’ comp claims may increase or decrease in the months ahead? Workers’ comp industry expert Joe Paduda says we can expect an increase in claims. Here’s why he thinks so:
“Construction is a higher-severity industry, making newer workers even more susceptible to longer-term claims,” Paduda points out. “Hospitality, construction and transportation are higher-turnover industries, making it more likely the entire workforce is less experienced, and more of the workers are in their first year than in other sectors.”
Other factors leading to more new workers on the job, according to Paduda:
Due to COVID-related workforce disruptions, there’s more turnover in employment than had been experienced prior to March 2020, which will result in more workers being in that dangerous first year. Governmental and private projects are ramping up, with billions to be spent on construction in the coming year. And lastly, the logistics/transportation sector will need to hire a wave of new employees to help iron out our country’s ongoing supply chain problems.
Paduda’s conclusion? “All these factors suggest injuries may bump up later in 2022 and into 2023.”
WCInsights.com presents the latest news related to Workers’ Compensation with our take on why it is important. WCInsights.com is operated by Acrometis, LLC. To learn more about Acrometis and its automated workers’ compensation and auto liability insurance claims processing solutions, visit www.acrometis.com.