The Relationship Between the Unemployment Rate and Workplace Injuries

Abstract

The United States has been experiencing a decline in workplace injuries since the 1970s, driven by workplace safety legislation and improvements in technology. However, workplace injuries flattened with an economic expansion in 2010. Previous research studied an era of the US which vastly differs from the labor force today. Using a difference-in-differences approach on unstudied industries and workplace injury outcomes from 1992 to 2018, I examine the relationship between the unemployment rate and workplace injuries in a new era. Further, using modern estimation techniques, I look at how the relationship of interest differs during an expansion and a recession which was previously assumed to be equal. My findings show that a one percent increase in unemployment is related to a 17.8% increase in nonfatal workplace injuries. This inverse relationship conforms to previous findings. However, a one percent increase in unemployment is also found to increase fatal injuries by 13.2% which is a significant update to previous findings contradicting conclusions of previous researchers. I cannot reject the hypothesis that these rates differ between expansions and recessions. However, when breaking down the nation by sector and industry, the relationship between unemployment and injuries can be found to be counter-cyclical and there can be large differences depending on the economy is experiencing a recession or an expansion which contrasts what the nation exhibits as a whole.