Bituminous Insurance Companies

Accuracy of BLS Data

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has published a paper discussing the data collected relating to worker injuries and illnesses. The BLS has been working on improvements to increase the accuracy and scope of its Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII); nevertheless, there is a debate about whether the survey undercounts injuries and illnesses to any significant extent. Although there are estimates that the undercount may range from 20 to 70 percent, other research and analysis conclude that the size of the undercount is small. This article, Examining Evidence On Whether BLS Undercounts Workplace Injuries And Illnesses, summarizes and critiques some of these studies and describes BLS efforts to better understand and address the undercount issue.

SOII is a federal and State program in which employers' reports are collected annually from about 176,000 private-industry establishments. Data are collected starting in January after the end of the survey reference year. Responding employers provide information on the number of workplace injuries and illnesses by copying the data from their Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordkeeping logs to the SOII questionnaire. Employers also provide the number of employee hours worked (needed in the calculation of incidence rates), as well as the establishments’ average employment.

The article discusses several possible reasons for the undercount findings, including willful underreporting, as well as the following:

• SOII and workers' compensation are independent systems, so a case might be recordable in one system, but not the other.
• Employers might have legitimate doubts about the recordability of some cases, particularly those being contested in the workers' compensation program.
• An aspect of SOII - its timeliness - may contribute in a modest way to the undercount, particularly when updates to logs occur after data collection.
• The undercount research studies might be unable to overcome some methodological challenges that increase the estimated undercount.

The article may be found at http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/08/art2full.pdf.

COPYRIGHT ©2008, ISO Services Properties, Inc.

The information contained in this publication was obtained from sources believed to be reliable. ISO Services Properties, Inc., its companies and employees make no guarantee of results and assume no liability in connection with either the information herein contained or the safety suggestions herein made. Moreover, it cannot be assumed that every acceptable safety procedure is contained herein or that abnormal or unusual circumstances may not warrant or require further or additional procedure.