>The Truth Hurts

The numbers prove it. Young workers in Canada are more likely than adults to get hurt on the job. Consider these statistics:

Young workers between the ages of 15 to 24 years old make up about 15 percent of the Canadian workplace. * They are also the largest percentage of the part-time, temporary, seasonal, contract, and casual workforce.

Young workers are more likely than adults to be injured on the job. Although they work 10% of the hours of all workers, they injure themselves at a rate of 16%. **

In 2007, there were 38 fatalities among young workers. ***

Each year, over 48,000 young workers are injured seriously enough to require time off work. ***

Being new to a job and working in settings or jobs with hazards put a young worker at higher risk for injury - not their age or individual characteristics. ****

* Canadian Labour Force Survey, March 2008

** Institut de Recherche Robert-Sauvé en Santé et en Sécurité du Travail, 2008

*** Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada. Canada's Seriously & Fatally Injured Young Workers

**** Institute for Work & Health, Systematic review of risk factors for work injury among youth, 2006 / «Newness» and the risk of occupational injury, 2009 

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