A new study has found that the jobs that are the most hazardous, as assessed by injuries and disease, also pay the least.

The majority of the occupations that the study, published in the December issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, ranks high in hazards are unskilled or “blue-collar” jobs, such as truck driving, timber cutting and machine operating.

Rankings of 413 jobs were compiled by the occupation’s total and average costs in worker’s compensation. Workers with highly hazardous jobs, according to the study, include janitors and cleaners (ranked fifth), nursing aides, orderlies and attendants (6), miscellaneous food preparation occupations (15) and police officers (23). The article listed only the top 100 hazardous jobs. Physicians did not make that list but clerical workers, such as administrative support (rank of 78 in total costs) and bookkeepers, accounting and auditing clerks (86), ranked relatively low.

The study found that registered nurses (29) and licensed practical nurses (62) generated “sizable costs” in injury and illness. “This suggests that nurses experience a considerable amount of injuries and illnesses on the job, both collectively and individually,” the authors, J. Paul Leigh of San Jose State University and Ted R. Miller of the National Public Services Research Institute, wrote.

The authors found that the cost of on-the-job injuries totals $81 billion per year and that the most hazardous jobs are often not viewed as such. “Common, public knowledge is frequently misinformed about job hazards,” the authors wrote. “Most of the high-cost per employee jobs...are not generally regarded as dangerous by the public.”

1st appeared 1/6/98

RETURN TO TOP