Individual and job characteristics as predictors of industrial accidents

This study asks whether individual or job characteristics are better predictors of industrial accidents. Data include a subset of employees drawn from the nationally-based Panel Study of Income Dynamics for 1978 and 1979. Individuals are classified as suffering a new accident if they began receiving workers' compensation during the study year. Evidence is produced that job characteristics such as frequent overtime, operative or laborer occupational categories, length of time with the job and hazardous working conditions are better predictors of industrial accidents than are personal characteristics such as age, marital status and schooling.