High Rates of Male Injuries in the Work Place

It is widely recognised that males work in occupations with the greatest risk of injury. The number of claims for work related injuries by males made up nearly three-quarters of all claims in 2003 (Injury Statistics - Work-related Claims 2003).When occupation categories are broken down into more defined areas of the workforce, the comparative difference between males and females can be narrowed and in some occupations there is no statistical difference in the incidence rate. The majority of occupations, however, are still dominated by male injuries.This paper provides information on the breakdown of males and females in the workforce and how their risk of injury differs. The exploratory analysis undertaken provides limited support for the idea that sex is a factor in workplace injury. However, there are clearly many other factors influencing the injury rate (as measured by workplace claims), and many of these cannot be easily measured or separated from other factors.