According to the 2019 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index, workplace injuries cost U.S. companies over $55 billion per year, amounting to over $1 billion per week in direct costs alone.
Half of the top 10 injuries and 56% of the direct costs cited by Liberty Mutual are related to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which Worklete is focused on preventing. These include overexertion involving an outside source, falls on the same level, other exertions or bodily reactions, slip or trips without a fall, and repetitive motions involving microtasks. In total, musculoskeletal disorders cost U.S. companies $31 billion in workers’ compensation costs per year.
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
New to this year’s study is the addition of injury costs to specific industry sectors. The following table details the industries that are most economically affected by musculoskeletal disorders.
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Industry*
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Annual Injury Cost related to MSDs
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Construction
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At least $5.99B
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Manufacturing
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At least $3.48B
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Healthcare
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At least $3.36B
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Professional and Business Services
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At least $3.25B
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Retail
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At least $3.04B
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Transportation and Warehousing
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At least $2.25B
|
|
Hospitality
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At least $1.82B
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Wholesale
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At least $1.73B
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*Industry sectors with sufficient data represented 85.7 percent of all direct costs for non-fatal injuries with more than five days away from work
The study was based on a combination of information from Liberty Mutual, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Academy of Social Insurance, which was compiled to determine which injury types caused workers to miss six or more days of work and ranked them by total workers’ compensation cost.
For U.S. businesses whose industry ranks on this list, working to reduce MSD injuries and establish a strong safety culture can have significant effects on injury costs.
Worklete is a technology platform that reduces musculoskeletal injuries for transportation, shipping and logistics companies by over 53% on average, saving companies millions of dollars a year in direct and indirect workers’ compensation costs. Our technology platform delivers consistent, short learning modules in 3-5 minute increments every week to build safe, strong movement habits over time. Worklete makes it easy for workers to learn and adopt, minimizing the impact on a company's operations.
