A decade’s worth of injury data shows injured workers are taking longer times to recover, just as workers compensation claims frequency continues to decline, according to a report released Tuesday by The Travelers Cos. Inc.
Travelers’ data showed there were 1.2 million claims received during the past five years, down from 1.4 million from 2015 through 2019, yet highlighted areas of concern.
The report found that employees in their first year on the job accounted for approximately 36% of injuries and 34% of overall claim costs during the last five years, up from 2015 to 2019, when 34% of injuries and 32% of overall claim costs were attributed to new employees.
The aging workforce is also seeing more claim activity. During the past five years, employees aged 50 or older made up 41% of the injured employee population, and those 60 and above represented 16%. This is up from 39% and 13%, respectively, when compared with data from 2015 through 2019. Travelers called this trend “significant because older employees – while typically injured less frequently than their younger counterparts – tend to require longer recovery times and have more costly claims.”
From 2020 through 2024, employees missed an average of 80 workdays per injury – an increase of more than seven days when compared with the previous five-year period. Injured employees aged 60 and above were out of work due to workplace injuries for nearly 97 days, almost 17 more days than the overall average and an increase of 14 days from pre-pandemic years, Travelers reported.
This article was first published in Cook County Record.
