More Than One in Three U.S. Workplace Injuries Is Now Serious, New SDS Manager Analysis of Federal Data Finds

A first-of-its-kind benchmark introduces the Serious Injury Share and reveals a nearly two-to-one gap between the safest and most dangerous industries.

DOVER, DE, UNITED STATES, July 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- More than one in three recordable workplace injuries in the United States is serious enough to cost a worker days away from the job or their life. That is the finding of a new analysis released today by SDS Manager, based on the most recent complete federal injury data available.

Examining roughly 1.49 million recordable injuries in the latest dataset from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, SDS Manager found that 35.2% resulted in days away from work or death. The rest were resolved with first aid or light duty. SDS Manager introduces this measure as the Serious Injury Share (SIS), the percentage of an organization's recordable injuries that are severe rather than minor.

"For years the industry has focused on how many injuries happen," said Erlend Bruvik, Founder of SDS Manager. "This data says we should pay just as much attention to how severe they are. When more than a third of recorded injuries are serious, and one industry is running close to half, the raw number of incidents hides the real risk."

Which industries carry the most serious injuries?

The Serious Injury Share is far from uniform. Transportation and warehousing records the highest share among major industries at 46.1%, meaning nearly half of its recordable injuries are serious. Educational services records the lowest at 25.1%. Wholesale trade (39.6%), public administration (39.1%), and administrative and waste services (37.8%) all run well above the 35.2% national average.

Recovery is slow when a serious injury does occur. The median days-away case keeps a worker off the job for nine days, and the average stretches to roughly 36 days once longer recoveries are counted.

Why does this data matter in 2026?

This is the newest complete picture of U.S. workplace injury. OSHA released the dataset in 2025, and it reflects employer filings due through early 2026. Complete 2025 data will not be finalized until 2027, which makes 2024 the current benchmark that safety leaders are working from as they set 2026 priorities.

The takeaway for safety teams is direct. Track the Serious Injury Share alongside total injury counts, so a falling case count does not mask a rising share of severe outcomes. Then connect every serious injury to a structured investigation that closes with a verified fix.

See the full analysis and industry breakdown at https://sdsmanager.com/us/chemical-hse-news/serious-injury-share/

About SDS Manager

SDS Manager is a chemical compliance and safety software company headquartered in Norway. EHS Solution by SDS Manager is a connected environmental, health, and safety platform that unifies incident management, risk management, and audit and inspection with native safety data sheet management. It supports ISO 45001, ISO 14001, and OSHA requirements.

Rakib Rafshanjani
SDS Manager
rakib@sdsmanager.com
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