KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — The number of occupational injuries increased by 58.9 per cent to a record 34,216 cases in 2022 compared with 21,534 cases in the previous year, said the Statistics Department (DOSM).
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin, in a statement on the National Occupational Accident and Disease Statistics 2022, said this resulted in the rate of occupational injuries per 1,000 workers in 2022 going up to 2.22 as compared with 1.43 in 2021.
“As for non-fatal occupational injuries, the number of cases was 33,899, which was a notable increase of 59.7 per cent against 21,233 cases in 2021. The rate of non-fatal occupational injuries per 1,000 workers consequently rose to 2.20 in 2022 from 1.41 in 2021.
“Meanwhile, the number of fatal occupational injuries was 317 cases in 2022, an increase of 16 cases from 301 fatalities in the preceding year. This translated to a higher rate of fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 workers at 2.06 in 2022, compared to 2.00 in 2021,” he said.
Uzir said 84.2 per cent of occupational injury cases involved male workers, whereas female workers made up 15.8 per cent.
As for fatal occupational injuries, he said 98.1 per cent (311 cases) involved male workers while 1.9 per cent (six cases) were female workers.
“From the perspective of occupational injuries by nationality, Malaysian citizens accounted for 88.6 per cent or 30,325 cases, whereas non-Malaysian citizens comprised 11.4 per cent or 3,891 cases,” he said.
Uzir said all states posted an increase in occupational injuries except for Perlis, while eight states surpassed the national rate of 2.22.
Johor ranked the highest with 3.59, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (3.53), Penang (3.35) and Perak (3.24).
He said Selangor recorded 6,563 occupational injuries or 19.2 per cent of the total cases, the highest increase with 2,368 cases, while the highest rate of fatal occupational injuries was in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (3.69), resulting in 33 deaths.
With regard to other countries, Uzir said in Singapore, the workplace injury rate per 100,000 workers decreased from 673 in 2021 to 614 in 2022. However, the fatal injury rate rose by 1.3 per 100,000 workers from 1.1 in the previous year.
He said the occupational accident rate per 1,000 workers in Japan remained at 2.3, while the rate of fatal occupational injuries for every 100,000 workers decreased to 1.42 from 1.60 in 2021.
“The situation of occupational injuries statistics worldwide demonstrated ongoing challenges in workplace safety. Many countries have implemented safety regulations and initiatives to reduce workplace accidents, including with safety training, inspections and penalties for non-compliance,” he said.
— Bernama
