The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Respondent Follow-Up Survey

Nonfatal workplace injury and illness data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) provide a valuable measure of the safety and health of U.S. workers. Concerns have been raised about the completeness of the SOII data—in particular, that the number of injury and illness cases are underreported in the survey. In 2015, BLS conducted a survey of SOII respondents to determine if follow-up interviews or company records could be used to capture cases that were not initially reported by employers in the SOII. Results from the SOII Respondent Follow-Up Survey indicate that keeping of injury and illness logs is not widely prevalent and that small establishments are less likely than midsized and large establishments to keep records. The survey results also show that there is considerable misunderstanding of the recordkeeping requirements as well as some of the key concepts of the SOII. The U.S.