For 2024 the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the total recordable case rate at 2.3 per 100 full-time workers across private industry, with a DART rate of 1.4 and a days-away rate of 0.8. Include state and local government and the recordable rate rises to 2.6. Those are the benchmarks — but a national average is the least useful comparison you can make.
The national numbers, with their years
Every "average TRIR" quoted online traces back to one place: the BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, which measures the same three rates every employer calculates from an OSHA 300A. Here is the full published series, extracted from the BLS database on September 14, 2026.
| Year | Total recordable cases (TRIR) | DART | Days away from work |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 0.8 |
| 2023 | 2.4 | 1.5 | 0.9 |
| 2022 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 1.2 |
| 2021 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 1.1 |
| 2020 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 1.2 |
| 2019 | 2.8 | 1.5 | 0.9 |
| 2018 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 0.9 |
| 2017 | 2.8 | 1.5 | 0.9 |
| 2016 | 2.9 | 1.6 | 0.9 |
| 2015 | 3.0 | 1.6 | 0.9 |
| 2014 | 3.2 | 1.7 | 1.0 |
Two things are worth pulling out of that table. The long trend is down — a 28% fall in the recordable rate over eleven years — and the 2020 to 2022 block is distorted, with the days-away rate jumping from 0.9 to 1.2 while the recordable rate barely moved. That is the signature of COVID-19 illness cases, which were recordable and almost always involved days away. Benchmarking your 2024 rate against 2021 numbers will flatter you for the wrong reason.
The universe you pick matters as much as the year:
| Universe | TRIR | DART |
|---|---|---|
| Private industry | 2.3 | 1.4 |
| All ownerships (private plus state and local government) | 2.6 | 1.5 |
| State and local government only | 4.4 | 2.1 |
Public-sector rates are nearly twice private-sector rates, year after year. If you are a municipality, a school district or a utility authority, comparing yourself to "2.3" is comparing yourself to the wrong workforce.
What a "good" TRIR actually means
There is no OSHA threshold. No standard names a number, no rate makes you compliant, and no rate makes you non-compliant. A rate is a comparison tool, and it only works against three things:
- Your NAICS code. Roofing, nursing homes and software do not belong on the same scale. BLS publishes rates down to detailed industry level for exactly this reason.
- Your establishment size. BLS breaks rates into size categories because one case moves a small establishment's rate far more than a large one's. At 60,000 hours, a single stitched cut is a TRIR of 3.3.
- Your own number last year. The only comparison where the counting conventions are guaranteed to match is the one against yourself.
Run this year's figures first — the TRIR calculator and the DART rate calculator take the case counts straight off the 300A — then bring the benchmark to them, not the other way round.
State benchmarks, private industry, 2024
BLS publishes state-level rates for the states that participate in the survey. These are the private-industry figures for 2024 — useful when your workforce sits in one state, and a reminder of how wide the spread is: 1.2 in the District of Columbia against 4.1 in Maine.
| State or area | TRIR | DART |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 1.9 | 1.1 |
| Alaska | 2.8 | 1.5 |
| Arizona | 2.6 | 1.6 |
| Arkansas | 1.8 | 0.9 |
| California | 2.9 | 1.9 |
| Colorado | 2.7 | 1.6 |
| Connecticut | 2.9 | 1.8 |
| Delaware | 2.2 | 1.3 |
| District of Columbia | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Hawaii | 2.9 | 1.9 |
| Illinois | 2.2 | 1.4 |
| Indiana | 2.5 | 1.4 |
| Iowa | 2.6 | 1.4 |
| Kansas | 2.5 | 1.4 |
| Kentucky | 2.4 | 1.4 |
| Louisiana | 1.4 | 0.7 |
| Maine | 4.1 | 2.4 |
| Maryland | 2.2 | 1.3 |
| Massachusetts | 2.1 | 1.2 |
| Michigan | 2.5 | 1.4 |
| Minnesota | 2.8 | 1.5 |
| Missouri | 2.4 | 1.3 |
| Montana | 3.3 | 1.7 |
| Nebraska | 2.5 | 1.3 |
| Nevada | 3.0 | 2.0 |
| New Jersey | 2.2 | 1.4 |
| New Mexico | 2.4 | 1.2 |
| New York | 1.9 | 1.1 |
| North Carolina | 1.9 | 1.0 |
| Ohio | 2.0 | 1.0 |
| Oklahoma | 2.3 | 1.3 |
| Oregon | 3.3 | 2.0 |
| Pennsylvania | 2.7 | 1.6 |
| Puerto Rico | 2.5 | 1.8 |
| South Carolina | 1.7 | 1.1 |
| Tennessee | 2.2 | 1.2 |
| Texas | 1.7 | 1.0 |
| Utah | 2.4 | 1.1 |
| Vermont | 3.6 | 2.0 |
| Virgin Islands | 1.4 | 0.9 |
| Virginia | 1.8 | 1.0 |
| Washington | 3.2 | 2.1 |
| West Virginia | 2.7 | 1.4 |
| Wisconsin | 2.9 | 1.5 |
| Wyoming | 2.5 | 1.3 |
A high state rate is not a verdict on the state's employers or its regulator. It mostly reflects the industry mix: states weighted toward logging, fishing, food processing and heavy construction sit high, states weighted toward finance and information sit low. Several states do not participate in the survey and therefore publish no rate.
By industry: what the sector numbers look like
BLS publishes industry detail in its annual incidence-rate tables rather than as a time series, so the sector figures below come from CPWR's Construction Chart Book, seventh edition, which reproduces them from BLS Table 1 and Table 2 for 2023. Note the case type: these are days-away-from-work rates, not total recordable rates — a narrower measure, and the one most often published by sector.
| Sector | Injuries with days away from work | Rate per 100 FTE |
|---|---|---|
| All industries | 1.2M | 1.0 |
| Private industry | 946.5K | 0.9 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 124.1K | 2.1 |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting | 15.4K | 1.6 |
| Educational and health services | 214.1K | 1.2 |
| Retail trade | 125.0K | 1.1 |
| Construction | 75.1K | 1.0 |
| Leisure and hospitality | 97.0K | 1.0 |
| Manufacturing | 112.3K | 0.9 |
| Wholesale trade | 51.8K | 0.9 |
| Utilities | 3.8K | 0.7 |
| Mining | 4.1K | 0.6 |
| Information | 13.9K | 0.5 |
| Financial activities | 22.3K | 0.3 |
Construction's days-away rate of 1.0 sits slightly above the private-industry figure of 0.9 and is tied fifth among the sectors listed — which surprises people who expect it at the top. The reason is that construction's fatality rate, not its injury rate, is what makes it stand out; CPWR's own commentary notes the construction days-away rate fell 41.2% between 2008 and 2023, from 1.7 to 1.0.
How to pull the number for your own NAICS code
- Find your six-digit NAICS code — it is on your 300A, your workers' compensation policy and your business license.
- Open BLS Table 1, incidence rates by industry and case type, for the same year as your own rate.
- Read across to the total recordable cases column for the TRIR benchmark, and the cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction column for the DART benchmark.
- Check the establishment-size table in the same release if you have fewer than 250 employees at the establishment.
Five ways a benchmark comparison goes wrong
- Mixed case types. TRIR counts every recordable case. DART counts only cases with days away, restriction or transfer. The days-away rate is narrower still. Comparing a TRIR to a sector DAFW rate makes you look three times worse than you are.
- Mixed universes. Private industry, all ownerships, and state and local government are three different populations with materially different rates. Say which one the benchmark is.
- Mixed years. BLS publishes about a year behind. Your 2026 rate has no 2026 benchmark to sit against; compare 2024 to 2024.
- Establishment against company. The 300A is kept per establishment. A company-wide rate compared to an establishment-level benchmark is not a comparison.
- Different hours conventions. Whether contractor and temporary-worker hours are in the denominator changes the rate, and prequalification questionnaires rarely specify. Publish the case count and the hours with the rate and the argument ends.
If you are pulling the case count off the summary, the OSHA 300A summary helper totals the columns and cross-checks them before the rates are calculated.
Bottom line
- The 2024 national benchmarks are TRIR 2.3 and DART 1.4 for private industry; 2.6 and 1.5 including public employers; 4.4 and 2.1 for state and local government alone.
- No rate is a compliance threshold. OSHA sets none.
- The comparison that means something is your NAICS code, your establishment size, your state and your own previous year — in that order.
- Match the case type and the year before you draw a conclusion, and publish the case count and hours alongside any rate you quote.