New data hub highlights work safety trends in Queensland

Queensland recorded a 16.9 per cent reduction in the rate of serious workplace incidents over the past five years. That's according to a new data hub on work safety research and statistics.

The hub features historical data, workers' compensation statistics and national comparisons which reveal, for example, that Queensland inspectors are performing nearly a third of all work safety regulatory activities across the country.

The information can be sorted industry by industry or across the state's regions, offering comparisons on work safety statistics, costs, and injuries by occupation and age grouping. The locality profiles use a snapshot of work health and safety and workers' compensation data to build a comparative picture of work safety in Brisbane, Toowoomba, Ipswich and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, as well as North and Central Queensland.

Online statistical tools include a safety and workers' compensation statistics tool, an industry comparative calculator and a return on investment calculator. This helps organisations estimate an indicative return on their investments in work health and safety.

The hub also comes with a Work Health and Safety eTools function that assists businesses to develop effective hazard risk controls and identify the financial benefits that follow. A harm index and associated heat maps can be used when developing educational, advisory, intervention and leadership programs. The harm index combines workers' compensation claim numbers and the cost of serious workplace incidents to produce a visual representation, broken down by industry or occupation, of the relative harm workers are likely to sustain during their working lives. The index is a ratio of total statutory costs (an indicator of severity) to the exposure (all persons employed) risk.

Further information

Access the data hub at worksafe.qld.gov.au/statistics.