The number of occupational injuries increased by 58.9 per cent to record 34,216 cases in 2022 compared to 21,534 cases in the previous year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr 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 went up to 2.22 as compared to 1.43 in 2021.
"As for non-fatal occupational injuries, the number of cases was 33,899, which recorded a notable increase of 59.7 per cent as against 21,233 cases in 2021.Thus, 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."
"In terms of occupational injuries by demographic background, the cases have been more common among male workers, as they are more likely to be engaged in an occupation that has a higher likelihood of accidents due to the nature of the work. Further analysis on the distribution of cases by gender revealed that more than two-thirds of the cases were identified as male workers (84.2%) as opposed to 15.8 per cent of female workers," he said.
""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 added.