The Workers’ Compensation Division received notification of 23,433 accepted disabling claims in 2007, an increase of 62 claims from 2006. Employment increased by 29,700 workers. This resulted in a claims rate of 1.3 claims per 100 workers. This claims rate is a slight increase from the record low rate reached in 2005.

In 2007, there were 87 years separating the oldest and youngest claimants. The youngest was a 10-year-old farm laborer. The oldest was a 97-year-old sales worker.

• Occupational diseases comprised 10.6 percent of the accepted disabling claims.
• Workers in their first year with an employer filed 7,792 claims, 33.3 percent of the total accepted in 2007.
• Of the total 23,433 accepted disabling claims, 156 were for workers younger than 18 and 511 were for workers 65 or older. The average age of claimants in 2007 was 41.
• Claims filed by women totaled 7,874 (33.6 percent).
• The average weekly wage at time of injury for 2007 claimants was $602.43. The average weekly wage for Oregon workers, excluding federal employees, was $753.72.
• Eighty-nine percent of the accepted disabling claims came from private industry.
• Claims tend to be centered on areas of the state with dense population. The Portland metropolitan area (Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties) had 41.3 percent of all accepted disabling claims in 2007.
  

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This document was originally published in September 2008.
[Printed form: 440-2055 (09/08/COM)]