BLS releases illness, injury report

There were 277,680 occupational injuries and illnesses with days away from work reported for state and local government combined in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Fifty percent occurred in service occupations, including healthcare support and protective service workers. In contrast, 22 percent of the injuries and illnesses in private industry occurred in service occupations.

State government workers sustained occupational injuries and illnesses at an incidence rate of 170 cases per 10,000 full-time workers and required a median of eight days away from work to recuperate. The incidence rate for local government workers was 195 and the median days away from work was nine.

For comparison, the incidence rate for private industry was 113 cases per 10,000 full-time workers.

There were a total of 206,580 cases of days away from work in local government and 71,100 cases in state government. Sprains and strains comprised 43 percent of the injuries and illness in local government at an incidence rate of 83 cases per 10,000 full-time workers. For State government, sprains and strains comprised 39 percent of the cases at a rate of 67 per 10,000 full-time workers.