Australian Workers’ Compensation Statistics 2018-19

This report provides the latest workers’ compensation data, including occupation and industry data.

Key findings in 2018-19 include:

• There was a total of 114,435 serious workers’ compensation claims

• The 3 occupations with the highest rate of serious claims (per million hours worked) were:
  1. labourers
  2. community and personal service workers
  3. machinery operators and drivers.

• The 3 industries with the highest rate of serious claims (per million hours worked) were:
  1. agriculture, forestry and fishing
  2. manufacturing, and
  3. transport, postal and warehousing.

• The 3 most common injury types were:
  1. traumatic joint/ligament and muscle/tendon injuries (39% of all serious claims)
  2. wounds, lacerations, amputations and internal organ damage (16%)
  3. musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases (16%).

Key findings from the trend analysis from 2008-09 to 2017-18 include:

• The rate of serious claims per million hours worked decreased by 26% (from 7.7 to 5.7 serious claims per million hours worked) from 2008-09 to 2017-18.
• The median time lost for a serious claim increased by 24% (from 5.0 to 6.2 working weeks) from 2008-09 to 2017-18.

For more, see the Australian Workers’ Compensation Statistics 2018-19 report.