General unemployment and serious workplace injury rates: Workers compensation claims analysis from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, 2007-2018.

Objectives: There is conflicting published evidence that unemployment impacts workplace safety. Some studies suggest that the workplace injury rate decreases during economic contractions, while others propose an increased rate of injuries during periods of economic contractions. This study investigated the association between unemployment rates and traumatic work-related non-fatal injury (WRNFI) in Saskatchewan, 2007-2018, in order to provide new insight into injury prevention.

Methods: Saskatchewan's retrospective linked workplace claims data from 2007 to 2018 were grouped by year, season, and worker characteristics (e.g., age and sex). Total employment, total labour force, and the number of unemployed workers from the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey were grouped by year, season, sex, and age. These data were linked to the worker's compensation board injury claim data to determine the number of people at risk, serving as the denominator (offset term) for WRNFI rates, calculated as WRNFI cases per total employed workers. A negative binomial generalized additive model was used to examine the association between unemployment rates and WRNFI, adjusted for age, sex, industry types, and seasons.

Results: The WRNFI rate has declined since 2007. On average, workers aged 20-29 years had the highest WRNFI rate (541.6 ± 84.8/100,000). Men had 3.2 times higher WRNFI risk than women (RR = 3.2, 95% CI 3.12-3.22), with the highest WRNFI risk observed in the manufacturing (RR = 1.68, 95% CI 1.63-1.73) and construction (RR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.63-1.72) industries. WRNFI risk decreased non-linearly with an increasing unemployment rate, indicating a pro-cyclic pattern.

Conclusion: This analysis showed that WRNFI rates tracked unemployment rates. This suggests a need to increase prevention strategies and reduce disincentives for under-reporting during an economic downturn.