BLS counts show about 75 percent of lost-time injuries at siding contractors in 2023 and 2024 were falls, slips or trips, and 59 percent were falls to a lower level. That BLS category also includes gutter and downspout installers. About 5 percent were overexertion, against 21 percent across construction, and about 4 percent involved the back. Shares are our arithmetic.
Last updated September 2026. Data through BLS 2024 SOII; refreshed each year when BLS releases new data.
What is the injury rate for siding contractors?
BLS publishes injury rates for siding contractors (industry code NAICS 23817) every year in its Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). Here are the last three years, next to construction and all private industry for 2024.
| Industry and year | All recordable cases | Days away, restricted or transferred (DART) | Days away from work | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Siding contractors, 2022 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.9 | BLS Table 1, 2022 |
| Siding contractors, 2023 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 4.8 | BLS Table 1, 2023 |
| Siding contractors, 2024 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 2.2 | BLS Table 1, 2024 |
| Construction (NAICS 23), 2024 | 2.2 | 1.3 | 0.9 | BLS Table 1, 2024 |
| All private industry, 2024 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 0.8 | BLS Table 1, 2024 |
| Relative standard error of the siding 2024 rate | 32.7% | 40.7% | 45.0% | BLS Table A-1, 2024 |
Cases per 100 full-time workers, private industry. DART counts cases with days away, restricted duty or a job transfer.
Read the siding rows with care
BLS builds these rates from a sample of employer reports, and siding contractors are a small slice of it: about 2,100 recordable cases nationwide in 2023, by BLS's estimate. BLS's own precision measure, the relative standard error, is 45 percent for the 2024 siding days-away rate. For construction as a whole it is 3.5 percent.
The siding number is a rough reading, and the true rate could sit well above or below it. That is how a rate can move from 0.9 to 4.8 to 2.2 in three years, and why we put no multiple on it.
What puts siding workers out of work?
BLS also publishes what happened in each days-away case and which part of the body was hurt, as two-year totals. The latest cover 2023 and 2024. Shares in parentheses are our arithmetic: each count divided by all days-away cases in that industry.
| Days-away cases, 2023 and 2024 combined | Siding contractors (NAICS 23817) | Construction (NAICS 23) | BLS table |
|---|---|---|---|
| What happened | |||
| All days-away cases | 2,570 | 142,560 | R4 |
| Falls, slips and trips | 1,920 (74.7%) | 45,220 (31.7%) | R4 |
| Of those, falls to a lower level | 1,520 (59.1%) | 20,930 (14.7%) | R4 |
| Overexertion, repetitive motion and bodily conditions | 120 (4.7%) | 30,250 (21.2%) | R4 |
| Of those, overexertion while moving or handling objects | Not published (too few cases) | 21,550 (15.1%) | R4 |
| Contact incidents (struck by, caught in or running into objects and equipment) | 490 (19.1%) | 52,960 (37.1%) | R4 |
| All other events (total minus the three groups above) | 40 (1.6%) | 14,130 (9.9%) | R4, our arithmetic |
| Overexertion cases per 10,000 full-time workers | 17.0 | 20.0 | R8 |
| Part of body | |||
| Back | 100 (3.9%) | 15,490 (10.9%) | R2 |
| Legs, knees, ankles and feet | 1,170 (45.5%) | 41,190 (28.9%) | R2 |
| Shoulders, arms, wrists and hands | 930 (36.2%) | 47,430 (33.3%) | R2 |
| Time away | |||
| Median days away from work | 45 | 11 | R65 |
| Cases with 31 or more days away | 1,530 (59.5%) | 43,440 (30.5%) | R65 |
Siding contractors are BLS industry NAICS 23817, which by the Census Bureau's definition also includes businesses installing gutters and downspouts, so these are not panel-crew figures alone. Contact incidents are construction's largest event group (37.1 percent), ahead of falls, slips and trips (31.7 percent). "Not published" means the figure did not meet BLS publication guidelines, usually because too few cases were reported. Sources: BLS SOII tables R2, R4, R8 and R65, private industry, 2023-2024. Percentages are EZpanl's arithmetic from BLS counts.
Contact incidents are being struck by, caught in or running into objects and equipment: 490 siding cases and 52,960 construction cases. Across all construction they are the largest group.
- Falls, slips and trips, 74.7 percent. That is three in four cases at siding contractors, gutter installers included. Falls to a lower level were 59.1 percent: the worker ended up lower than where they started. BLS does not say from what. Legs, knees, ankles and feet were hurt in 45.5 percent of cases.
- Overexertion, 120 cases. That is about 5 percent. The siding overexertion rate was 17.0 per 10,000 full-time workers, against 20.0 for construction and 23.2 for all private industry. With a count that small we read it as no higher than construction. It does not show that siding is easy on the body.
- A median 45 days away. Construction's median was 11 days, and 59.5 percent of siding cases ran 31 days or more. BLS does not link time away to cause, so we cannot say the falls were the long cases.
Back injuries in construction: the statistics
Back injuries were 10.9 percent of construction's days-away cases in 2023 and 2024 (15,490 of 142,560, BLS; our arithmetic), and overexertion caused 21.2 percent. At siding contractors the back was 3.9 percent, 100 of 2,570 cases.
- CPWR, 2021-22 data. In CPWR's analysis of BLS data, the back was the second most common body part in construction's days-away cases (13.5 percent), behind hands (16.4 percent). Construction's back-injury rate was 13.9 per 10,000 full-time workers, against 12.6 for all industries. CPWR charts back-injury rates for select occupations and says roofers (43.5), glaziers (39.7), carpenters (30.9), painters (30.6) and construction laborers (27.7) "had particularly high injury rates."
- Age. Construction workers aged 55 to 64 lost a median 29 days per injury, and workers 65 and older lost 30, against 11 for all construction workers (CPWR, 2021-22).
What do construction injuries cost?
Liberty Mutual's 2025 Workplace Safety Index for construction counts injuries that kept a worker out more than five days, using 2022 data. It puts the industry's direct cost at more than $10.4 billion a year. Falls to a lower level were the most expensive cause at $2.34 billion (22.4 percent). Overexertion involving outside sources, which Liberty Mutual describes as handling objects, was second at $1.93 billion (18.5 percent).
Per claim, NCCI workers' compensation data published by the National Safety Council puts the average lost-time claim for accidents in 2022 and 2023 at $47,316. Claims caused by a fall or slip averaged $54,499. Lower-back claims averaged $44,158, below the all-claims average, and arm and shoulder claims averaged $55,115. The figures cover only states where NCCI provides ratemaking services, so they are not a national average.
What the research says about handling sheets
We could not find a single published ergonomics study of siding installers. The closest research is NIOSH's work on drywall: the same 4 ft wide sheets, no handholds, held against a wall while someone fastens them. It is an analog, and some of it is more than 20 years old.
- Injury causes. NIOSH's 2006 drywall guidance, citing a 2000 study, found that "the two main causes of injuries to drywall installers and carpenters are overexertion (37%) and falls (32%)."
- Falls that start as handling. The same NIOSH document says falls for these workers "can be caused by losing balance as a result of lifting, carrying, or holding heavy and bulky drywall sheets." In an injury table, that shows up as a fall.
- Balance. In a 2003 study of 60 construction workers, NIOSH researchers measured more side-to-side sway with a drywall sheet lifted vertically (3.9 cm) than with three horizontal methods (1.8 cm or less), and cautioned that the link to falls on the job has not been well established.
- Older workers. Among construction workers 50 and older, 17.5 percent reported a lot of back pain in 2023 (CPWR, from national health survey data).
NIOSH's own control for heavy sheets, in its words: "Use two workers to lift larger, thicker, and heavier sheets."
What a sheet of panel siding weighs depends on the product, and our 4x8 panel weight guide lists them.
What this data does not tell you
- Everyone who hangs siding. SOII covers private-industry wage-and-salary workers. Self-employed installers, and owner-operators subcontracting without employees, are not in it.
- Panel crews on their own. The siding-contractor industry (NAICS 23817) is wider than panel crews. The Census Bureau's definition covers wood, aluminum, vinyl and other siding, and "also includes establishments installing gutters and downspouts." The data cannot separate a panel crew from a gutter crew, and we think the gutter work plausibly pushes the falls share up.
- Siding hung by other trades. These are injuries at businesses BLS classifies as siding contractors. Siding hung by a framing company or a general contractor's own crew counts under those industries.
- A steady number. The siding samples are small, and the pooled 2023-24 tables lean on 2023: BLS estimated about 1,800 days-away cases at siding contractors that year, roughly 70 percent of the two-year 2,570 (our arithmetic). If 2023 was unusual, the shares carry it.
- How many were lifting injuries. The siding figure for overexertion while handling objects is not published (too few cases), so the data cannot say.
- Slow damage. SOII counts cases an employer records. Strain that builds over years, gets worked through, or ends a career without a single lost day never becomes a days-away case. Survey data, like CPWR's back-pain figure above, catches some of it.
- Whether any tool changes the numbers. No study we could find measures the effect of any tool or method on siding injuries.
We will not quote a siding injury multiple, and we think nobody should. The BLS days-away rate for siding contractors went 0.9, 4.8, 2.2 in three years, with a 45 percent relative standard error on the latest. What we take from the data is the share: three in four lost-time cases in 2023 and 2024 at businesses BLS classes as siding contractors, a category that also includes gutter installers, were falls, slips or trips. It does not tell us how panel crews in particular get hurt.
We make hooks that a sheet's bottom edge rests on at the foundation line. We are not going to sell you a back-injury promise: no study we could find has measured any siding tool's effect on injuries, ours included, and a hook at the foundation line is no substitute for fall protection.
Where EZpanl fits
EZpanl makes siding hooks: the bottom edge of a sheet rests on the saddle while the crew positions and fastens the panel (how the hooks work).
Questions crews ask
What is the most common injury for siding installers?
In BLS data for siding contractors, a category that also includes gutter and downspout installers, the most common event behind a lost-time injury in 2023 and 2024 was a fall, slip or trip: about 75 percent of cases, and about 59 percent were falls to a lower level. Legs, knees, ankles and feet were involved in about 46 percent of cases, and shoulders, arms, wrists and hands in about 36 percent. The back was about 4 percent. These shares are our arithmetic from BLS counts, and the sample is small.
Is siding installation hard on your body?
The injuries that cost workers at siding contractors days off are mostly falls, slips and trips (BLS, 2023-24, in a category that also counts gutter installers). Slow wear seldom shows up in those counts, and survey data catches some of it: in 2023, 17.5 percent of construction workers 50 and older reported a lot of back pain (CPWR). A commenter in an r/Carpentry thread on what the trades do to your body (December 2025) put it more plainly: "Your knees and back are your biggest issues."
What is the most common injury in construction?
By part of body, hands come first (16.4 percent of construction's days-away cases) and the back second (13.5 percent), in CPWR's analysis of 2021-22 BLS data. By what happened, contact incidents (struck by, caught in or running into objects and equipment) were the largest group in BLS 2023-24 counts at 37.1 percent, ahead of falls, slips and trips at 31.7 percent and overexertion at 21.2 percent (our arithmetic). Siding contractors are the outlier on falls, slips and trips, at about 75 percent, in a BLS category that also includes gutter installers.
Is siding installation dangerous?
In 2024 the BLS days-away rate for siding contractors was 2.2 per 100 full-time workers, against 0.9 for construction. That estimate carries a 45 percent relative standard error and was 0.9 in 2022 and 4.8 in 2023, so we put no multiple on it. The data says more about where the lost time comes from: about 59 percent of lost-time cases in 2023 and 2024 at siding contractors, a category that also includes gutter installers, were falls to a lower level.