(in German)

The report Safety and Health at Work - Reporting Year 2023 (Sicherheit und Gesundheit bei der Arbeit - Berichtsjahr 2023) draws on a wide range of German data to discuss developments relating to employment, trends in accidents at work and occupational diseases, pensions, incapacity for work, and much else besides. It also includes articles about the activities of Germany’s main occupational safety and health (OSH) actors, such as the Joint German Occupational Safety and Health Strategy (Gemeinsame Deutsche Arbeitsschutzstrategie, GDA), the federal states’ OSH authorities, and the statutory accident insurance providers. This year’s publication has a special focus on gender inequalities in the world of work (section 2), giving an overview of the differences between women and men’s experiences of employment. Other parts of the report also offer insights into the working situations of people engaged in person-related service work (section 1.8.1), working time safeguards and the recording of working times (section 1.9.1), and the development of work-from-home agreements as viewed by both employees (section 1.9.2) and employers (1.9.3).

The number of notifiable occupational accidents in Germany fell yet again in 2023 to 838,792. At 18.8, the accident rate per 1,000 full-time-equivalent employees was lower than in the preceding years. Moreover, fewer people died in 2023 as a result of accidents at work than in any previous year for which figures are available (499). The number of fatal commuting accidents that occurred (225) was also lower than at any time on record. The indicators for occupational diseases continued to reflect the impact of the pandemic, although this was no longer being felt as strongly as it had been in the preceding years. The number of reports of suspected occupational diseases was 150,368, 60 per cent lower than in the previous year, but still noticeably higher than before the pandemic (2019: 84,853). This was still attributable to infectious diseases, 66,083 suspected cases of which featured in the statistics, many of them due to COVID-19. A similar picture is found when it comes to the development of recognised occupational diseases (74,930; previous year: 201,723). The number of people who died of occupational diseases was 2,151, putting it at approximately the same level as the previous year. A large proportion of these deaths could be traced back to asbestos-induced occupational diseases (62%).

Please note that the reproduction and dissemination of these figures are only permitted provided their source is acknowledged. When quoted in publications of all kinds (book contributions, articles, lectures, etc.), this report must always be cited as follows: “BMAS/BAuA (2024): Safety and Health at Work - Reporting Year 2023, downloaded from www.baua.de/suga”.

Please download the complete report (in German) "Safety and Health at Work - Reporting Year 2023"