What Does BLS Injury Data Say About How Grocery Associates Actually Get Hurt?

By awareretailgroup.com Editorial· Edited by Tom Walsh· Published 2026-10-07

BLS’s 2024 data for Food and Beverage Stores (NAICS 445), a category that also covers specialty food and liquor stores, lists 3.7 total recordable cases and 2.4 DART cases per 100 full-time workers (BLS). That rate counts injuries and illnesses together. The newest grocery-specific breakdown, Washington State’s supermarket claims study, found musculoskeletal disorder claims consistently higher than every other injury type (WA L&I). The lifting and cuts breakdown most training still repeats comes from 2000 grocery data, not today’s picture.

What the 2024 BLS rate for food and beverage stores actually covers

BLS’s Industries at a Glance page for NAICS 445 reports a 2024 total recordable case rate of 3.7 per 100 full-time workers and a DART rate of 2.4 (BLS). BLS states the food and beverage stores subsector is made up of several industry groups (BLS), so the 3.7 figure blends grocery stores with specialty food shops and beer, wine, and liquor stores. For comparison, BLS put the 2024 total recordable case rate for all private industry at 2.3 per 100 full-time equivalent workers, down from 2.4 in 2023 (BLS).

Why the “strains, cuts, boxes” list is out of date

The injury profile that shows up in most grocery safety materials traces back to a BLS article on calendar-year 2000 data, published in 2003, when grocery stores were classified under the old Standard Industrial Classification as industry group 541 (BLS). That year’s total recordable case rate was 8.4 per 100 full-time workers (BLS), down from 11.9 in 1991 (BLS). Among that year’s days-away cases, strain and sprain accounted for about 45 percent, and cuts, lacerations, and punctures for 15 percent (BLS); containers like boxes and crates were the leading source of injury at 27 percent (BLS). Those percentages come from one calendar year under a coding system BLS has since replaced. BLS has also flagged a break in series for its 2023-2024 case and demographics data after an injury classification change (BLS). Anchor this week’s talking point to the current 2024 rate, and save the 2000 breakdown for historical context only.

What a current grocery-specific injury picture looks like

The newest industry-specific injury picture doesn’t come from BLS at all. Washington State’s L&I SHARP program tracked workers’ compensation claims for supermarket workers, risk class 6402, from 2018 through 2022 and found an average compensable claims rate of 3.9 per 100 full-time equivalent workers, compared with 1.5 per 100 FTE for all other risk classes combined (WA L&I). Musculoskeletal disorder claims ran consistently higher than every other injury type across the study period (WA L&I), and same-level falls and contact-with-object claims both showed steadily increasing rates (WA L&I). Women made up about 53 percent of the supermarket workforce but accounted for about 61 percent of reported injuries (WA L&I). These are state-level workers’ comp claims, not national BLS recordable cases. Cite this Washington data, not the 2000 breakdown, the next time someone asks what’s actually hurting grocery associates today.

Lifting and case handling: where huddle time should go first

NIOSH states that manual material handling, also called overexertion, accounts for 60 percent of injuries and lost work in select retail businesses (NIOSH), though NIOSH’s publication does not trace that figure to a specific dataset. Nationally, overexertion, repetitive motion, and bodily conditions caused more DART cases in private industry over 2023-2024 than any other event, at 946,290, ahead of contact incidents at 860,050 (BLS). Washington’s supermarket claims, where musculoskeletal disorders ran highest, are the grocery-specific reason lifting deserves the largest block of huddle time; the national counts are context. OSHA recommends employers use engineering and administrative techniques, where feasible, as the preferred method for grocery ergonomics (OSHA). OSHA also advises working with suppliers to get lower-weight boxes, noting trade groups encourage containers of 40 pounds or less (OSHA). A store manager can’t rewrite a supplier contract, but can escalate a recurring heavy-case complaint and have associates check a box’s weight before lifting it (OSHA). Run the lift demo in every huddle, then log which SKUs keep showing up as too heavy and send that list up the chain.

Cuts: pair the right safety cutter with training

OSHA’s grocery guidelines tell stores to use the correct safety cutter for the job and supply a left-handed cutter when the employee is left-handed (OSHA). The same guidance tells stores to keep safety cutters sharp and replace blades often, since a dull blade needs more force to open the same box (OSHA). Before the next huddle on cuts, walk the stockroom and swap every cutter that needs more than light pressure to open a case, and confirm left-handed cutters are actually on the shelf.

Floors and OSHA’s walking-working surfaces duty

OSHA’s walking-working surfaces standard requires that hazardous conditions on a walking surface be corrected or repaired before an employee uses that surface again (OSHA). The same standard requires workroom floors to be kept clean and, to the extent feasible, dry (OSHA). That matters more now because Washington’s supermarket claims data shows same-level falls trending upward over its study period (WA L&I). This is one state’s claims trend, not a nationwide finding, and nothing here is legal advice on how a specific store meets the standard. The fix is mopping the spill, moving the pallet jack, or clearing the cart aisle before the next associate or customer crosses it.

Comparing the injury data sets side by side

Four different data sets get cited for grocery and food-store injuries, and they measure different things across different years and populations. Lining them up side by side shows why a manager shouldn’t treat them as interchangeable, and also where the separate pattern of retail workplace violence data sits outside this physical and ergonomic injury picture entirely.

Use this table to tell your team which number applies to your store instead of citing whichever one appears first in a search result.

Turning the data into this week’s huddle

Build a five-minute huddle from the comparison table above: the 2024 rate for credibility, the Washington claims data for what to prioritize, and the 2000 breakdown only if someone asks why the old numbers don’t match. State the current rate, name the lifting priority, and close on one fixable hazard in the store that day.

What to do this week

• Open this week’s huddle with the 2024 rate instead of the 2000 injury list, and name it as the Food and Beverage Stores subsector, not a grocery-only number.
• Run a live lift demonstration and have associates check box weight before lifting.
• Walk the stockroom, replace any dull safety cutter blade, and confirm left-handed cutters are on the shelf.
• Correct any wet, cluttered, or damaged floor surface before another associate or customer crosses it.
• Log any recurring heavy case or box complaint and send it to merchandising or the supplier contact.