The Department of Consumer and Business Services (the department) examined several years of wage records obtained from the Oregon Employment Department, for more than 45,000 Oregonians with accepted workers' compensation claims. These were claims for disability caused by a work-related injury or illness in 1992 and 1993. This "Research Alert" summarizes the findings of a departmental study of the return-to-work experiences for these injured workers (forms of the word "injury" imply occupational illness, as well).

By the time their claims were closed, about 10 percent of the injured workers were determined unable to return to their regular work, generally because of the severity of their work-related disabilities. For these severely disabled workers, use of vocational assistance and the Preferred Worker Program resulted in higher rates of reemployment following the injury, compared to similar workers who did not use these benefits. Among injured workers determined able to return to work, those who had been placed in light-duty jobs under the Employer-at-Injury Program, while their claims were open, had the highest reemployment rates.

In general, injured workers are eligible for vocational assistance if the permanent disability resulting from the injury prevented reemployment in any job paying at least 80 percent of the wages earned prior to injury. Usually, they are also eligible to use benefits under the Preferred Worker Program. Workers who actually completed vocational plans were relatively few (21 percent out of over 1,700 eligible for vocational assistance), and current completion rates are similarly low. However, reemployment rates for plan completers were half again as high as for workers who did not complete their plans ("Other"). There is no evidence that workers who did not complete their plans had more complex claims. The most likely explanation for the difference in reemployment rates appears to be the vocational assistance benefits themselves, together with the greater use of Preferred Worker Program benefits by plan completers.

Injured workers who cannot return to regular work--the job at injury or similar work--due to limitations resulting from the injury are identified by the department as Preferred Workers. Preferred Workers who actually used the program's benefits were relatively few (just over 25 percent of almost 2,900), and current statistics show similarly low use, as well as a declining rate of identification of Preferred Workers. However, benefit users had reemployment rates that were half again as high as for workers who did not use Preferred Worker Program benefits ("ID only"). The most likely explanation for the difference in reemployment rates appears to be the use of reemployment benefits. For the average Preferred Worker, the six-month wage subsidy was the most important benefit in terms of benefit costs, but worksite modifications and claim cost reimbursements under the premium-exemption benefit were also significant.

For the nearly 30,000 injured workers who were determined able to return to regular work, more than two-thirds were employed four years after injury. Faring best were the 1,700 workers who returned to light duty via wage subsidies under the Employer-at-Injury Program (EAIP), while their claims were open: about three-quarters were still employed after their light duty, four years after their injuries. The 600 workers who settled their open claim via a Claim Disposition Agreement (CDA) had the lowest long-term reemployment rates. These injured workers did not receive any return-to-work assistance, nor even identification as a Preferred Worker, even though they apparently suffered injuries of a severity comparable to Preferred Workers.