Ergonomics Statistics 2026: MSD, Injury and Cost Data From BLS, WHO and More

What are the key ergonomics statistics for 2026?

These ergonomics statistics come from the latest primary data we could find, fetched on 26 October 2026. The US numbers are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), whose most recent detailed release covers 2023-2024. Every figure below names its data year and source, and the calculations we did ourselves are marked as ours.

• 484,620 work-related MSDs with at least one day away from work, US private industry, 2023-2024 combined (BLS MSD tables).
• 22.9 MSDs with days away per 10,000 full-time workers per year, 2023-2024 annualized (BLS).
• 14 days: median time away for an MSD, against 8 days for all days-away cases, 2023-2024 (BLS).
• 26.4% of all days-away cases were MSDs, 2023-2024 (our calculation from BLS counts).
• 946,290 cases with days away, restriction or transfer caused by overexertion, repetitive motion and bodily conditions, the largest event group, 2023-2024 (BLS).
• 37% of MSDs with days away affected the back, 2023-2024 (our calculation from BLS).
• 1.8x the private-industry rate of overexertion days-away cases in trade, transportation and utilities, 2023-2024 (our calculation from BLS).
• 2.3 total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers in private industry, 2024, the lowest since 2003 (BLS).
• $13.70 billion: direct cost of overexertion injuries from handling objects, the costliest injury cause, 2022 data (Liberty Mutual 2025 index).
• 1.71 billion people worldwide live with a musculoskeletal condition, GBD 2019 data (WHO).

How many work-related MSDs happen in the US?

BLS counts an MSD when the injury is a soft tissue injury, a musculoskeletal disease or a similar nature, and the event behind it is overexertion, repetitive motion, bodily position or motion, or vibration from running equipment. Since the 2021-2022 data, BLS publishes these case details every two years, so counts are two-year totals and rates are annualized.

MSDs in US private industry, 2023-2024

Case type	Cases (2 years)	Rate per 10,000 FTE workers	Median days
Days away from work (DAFW)	484,620	22.9	14 days away
Job transfer or restriction only (DJTR)	453,000	21.4	21 days restricted
Total MSDs with days away, restriction or transfer	937,620 (our sum)	44.3 (our sum)	n/a

Source: BLS Table MSD1. Sprains, strains and tears made up 335,570 of the days-away MSDs. Carpal tunnel syndrome accounted for 5,140.

The restricted-duty half matters. If you only track lost-time cases, you miss almost as many MSDs again.

Public employers report higher rates. Local government recorded 79,870 MSDs with days away at an annualized rate of 36.3, and state government 19,660 at 25.6, both above the private-industry 22.9 (BLS MSD1).

Is the trend going down? Over 2021-2022, BLS counted 502,380 MSDs with days away, at 25.3 per 10,000 workers (BLS, 2021-2022). The 2023-2024 figures are lower, but BLS revised its injury classification for 2023 data and calls this a break in series, so treat the comparison as indicative. For single-year context, the BLS MSD fact sheet reports 272,780 MSD cases in 2018, 30% of that year's days-away cases.

For what these disorders are and how they develop, see our guide to work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

How do ergonomic injury statistics compare with overall injury rates?

Private employers reported 2.5 million nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2024, and a total recordable case rate of 2.3 per 100 full-time workers, both the lowest in a series going back to 2003 (BLS).

Over 2023-2024 there were 1,834,600 cases with days away from work, a median of 8 days each (BLS Table 2). Ergonomic cases stand out in two ways. They make up about a quarter of those cases, and they last longer: 14 days for MSDs and 24 days median for all overexertion cases with days away, restriction or transfer.

Want to see where your site sits? Put your OSHA log numbers into the TRIR calculator and compare the result with the BLS average for your industry.

Which industries have the most ergonomic injuries?

BLS does not publish MSD counts by industry for 2023-2024. It does publish the closest proxy: cases caused by overexertion, repetitive motion and bodily conditions, by industry sector. We used those counts and rates to build the workplace ergonomics statistics below.

Overexertion and repetitive motion cases by industry, US private industry, 2023-2024

Industry sector	DAFW cases from overexertion	Share of sector's DAFW cases	Overexertion DAFW rate	vs private average
Trade, transportation and utilities	199,130	33.2%	42.2	1.82x
Education and health services	100,900	24.7%	28.0	1.21x
Manufacturing	61,650	28.5%	24.6	1.06x
Natural resources and mining	6,930	18.4%	21.2	0.91x
Construction	30,250	21.2%	20.0	0.86x
Leisure and hospitality	35,610	19.0%	17.4	0.75x
Other services	11,220	24.3%	16.6	0.72x
Information	7,080	32.8%	12.9	0.56x
Professional and business services	29,920	23.0%	8.3	0.36x
Financial activities	9,450	22.1%	5.8	0.25x
Private industry	492,140	26.8%	23.2	1.00x

Rates are annualized cases per 10,000 full-time workers. Source data: BLS tables R64 and R75.

How we calculated it. Share = overexertion days-away cases ÷ all days-away cases in the same sector. Ratio = the sector's overexertion rate ÷ 23.2, the private-industry rate. For example, trade, transportation and utilities: 199,130 ÷ 600,450 = 33.2%, and 42.2 ÷ 23.2 = 1.82.

Two things jump out. Trade, transportation and utilities has both the highest rate and the highest share, so warehouses, distribution and delivery are where ergonomics pays first. And the information sector has a low rate but a high share: when its workers do lose time, a third of the time it is from overexertion.

The same split also shows a hidden load. Overexertion was 26.8% of days-away cases but 39.5% of restriction-only cases (454,150 of 1,148,510), so a lot of ergonomic harm shows up as light duty rather than lost time.

Free download: vivelab-ergonomics-statistics-2026.csv has the full table, including the goods and services subtotals, case counts with restriction or transfer, and the number of cases from moving materials by hand.

Which occupations report the most overexertion injuries?

Ranked by overexertion, repetitive motion and bodily condition cases with days away from work, 2023-2024 (BLS Table R12):

1. Laborers and freight, stock and material movers, hand: 60,990 cases (40% of their days-away cases, our calculation)
2. Stockers and order fillers: 26,600 (40%)
3. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers: 23,430
4. Nursing assistants: 22,820
5. Light truck drivers: 21,670

Material handling and patient handling dominate. Our posts on warehouse ergonomics and ergonomics in manufacturing cover practical fixes for these jobs.

Which body parts do work-related MSDs affect most?

Of the 484,620 MSDs with days away in 2023-2024 (BLS Table MSD2):

Body part	DAFW cases	Share of MSDs (our calc)	Median days away
Back	180,700	37.3%	9
Upper extremities (all)	161,090	33.2%	21
Shoulder	75,170	15.5%	26
Knee	42,260	8.7%	24
Wrist	25,430	5.2%	15
Neck	6,560	1.4%	13

The lumbar region alone accounted for 103,800 cases. The back is the most frequent MSD site, but shoulder cases keep people off work nearly three times as long.

What causes most ergonomic injuries?

Within the 492,140 overexertion and repetitive motion cases with days away in 2023-2024, BLS Table R64 breaks the causes down:

• Moving materials by hand: 255,390 cases, or 52% of the group (our calculation).
• Bodily position and motion (bending, reaching, twisting and similar): 92,570.
• Overexertion while providing medical or custodial care: 55,490.
• Repetitive microtasks: 32,110.

The National Safety Council's summary of the same BLS data names workers aged 20 to 24 as the age group most at risk from overexertion, transportation and warehousing as the riskiest industry, and the back as the part of the body hurt most often (NSC Injury Facts).

These are the job features covered in our guide to ergonomic hazards and how to control them: force, repetition and awkward posture.

What do ergonomic injuries cost employers?

The Liberty Mutual 2025 Workplace Safety Index, based on 2022 data, puts the direct cost of the most disabling US workplace injuries at $58.78 billion. Overexertion involving outside sources, such as lifting, pushing and carrying, ranks first at $13.70 billion (23.31%). Awkward postures rank fifth at $3.90 billion, and repetitive motions involving microtasks ninth at $1.83 billion (Liberty Mutual).

We cover what those numbers include, the indirect costs on top, and how to estimate ROI for a fix in our breakdown of the cost of ergonomic injuries.

What are the global musculoskeletal disorder statistics?

• About 1.71 billion people have musculoskeletal conditions, based on GBD 2019 data. These conditions are the leading contributor to disability worldwide, and low back pain is the single leading cause of disability in 160 countries (WHO).
• Musculoskeletal conditions account for about 149 million years lived with disability, 17% of the global total (WHO).
• Low back pain affected 619 million people in 2020, projected to reach 843 million by 2050. The GBD study attributed 38.8% of low back pain disability to occupational factors, smoking and high BMI combined (GBD 2021, Lancet Rheumatology).

These are population figures, not only work-related cases, and they are general information, not medical advice. Anyone with persistent pain should see a clinician.

What do office ergonomics statistics show?

Solid national office ergonomics statistics are thin. In BLS data for 2023-2024, repetitive microtasks involving computers and electronics led to 2,890 cases with days away from work, an annualized rate of about 0.1 per 10,000 workers (BLS Tables R64 and R75).

That small number reflects what the survey counts, not how common desk discomfort is. Most computer-related aches never become a recordable case with days away. Liberty Mutual also reports that the cost of repetitive motion injuries has fallen over 25 years, from an average of $2.7 billion in 2001-2005 to $1.5 billion in 2021-2025.

We did not find a primary national dataset on remote-work MSDs that met our sourcing bar, so we have left that out rather than quote secondary claims. For desk set-up guidance, see our workstation ergonomics guide.

What do these ergonomics statistics mean for your program?

1. Start where the data point. Material handling, patient handling and the back come up in every dataset. Screen those jobs first with the ergonomic assessment checklist.
2. Track restricted duty, not only lost time. Nearly half of MSDs with days away, restriction or transfer were restriction-only cases.
3. Benchmark by rate, not count. Convert your cases to a rate with the incident rate calculator before comparing with the BLS figures above.
4. Measure the job, not just the injury. Video-based tools such as ViveLab's AI posture analysis estimate REBA or RULA scores from a phone recording, processed on the device. The scores are AI-assisted estimates that a trained assessor should review.

Our guide to building a workplace ergonomics program turns these steps into a plan.

How we compiled these statistics

• Sources. Primary sources only: BLS SOII news releases and data tables, NSC Injury Facts (which republishes BLS data), the Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index PDF, the WHO fact sheet and the GBD 2021 low back pain study. We did not use figures from secondary blogs.
• Fetched. All pages and BLS spreadsheets were downloaded on 26 October 2026.
• Our calculations. Shares, sums and ratios marked as ours were calculated directly from the BLS tables listed in the sources, with the formula shown.
• Definitions. The industry and occupation tables use the BLS overexertion event group, which is close to, but not the same as, the BLS MSD definition.
• Next update. BLS is scheduled to publish 2025 SOII data in November 2026. We will update these ergonomics statistics when it does. Detailed case data, including MSDs, are next due for 2025-2026.

Next steps

Compare your site against these numbers by running last year's OSHA log through the free TRIR calculator. Then read our guide to work-related musculoskeletal disorders to understand the conditions behind the counts.