When Do Workplace Injuries Occur? A Temporal Analysis of the First Reporting Year of the Injury Tracking Application Case Data in the United States.

Abstract

In 2023, OSHA began requiring large establishments (≥100 employees) to submit detailed case reports of injuries electronically. These reports have been organized into a publicly available data system, called the Injury Tracking Application (ITA). We analyzed timestamps of 738,828 injuries to investigate injury patterns by month, weekday, hour, and daylight-saving time transitions in 2023 using quasi-Poisson rate regression and interrupted time-series models. Injuries were not evenly distributed over time: certain months, days, and hours showed markedly higher rates. Injuries peaked around July and August. A 10  am peak was observed across several industries. The fall daylight-saving shift increased injuries, whereas the spring shift did not show a significant effect. Understanding "when" workplace injuries happen can inform timely interventions. This study is a proof-of-concept demonstration of how the newly released ITA case dataset from large establishments can be used to explore national-scale injury patterns.