Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance officers now responsible for far more workers than 40 years ago: Employment per OSHA compliance officer, 1978–2018
| Year | Covered workers per compliance officer |
|---|---|
| 1978 | 60,118 |
| 1979 | 61,642 |
| 1980 | 60,710 |
| 1981 | 69,916 |
| 1982 | 88,106 |
| 1983 | 76,816 |
| 1984 | 90,007 |
| 1985 | 93,782 |
| 1986 | 100,761 |
| 1987 | 101,166 |
| 1988 | 90,432 |
| 1989 | 103,119 |
| 1990 | 90,277 |
| 1991 | 93,952 |
| 1992 | 97,036 |
| 1993 | 103,699 |
| 1994 | 111,831 |
| 1995 | 117,053 |
| 1996 | 126,415 |
| 1997 | 115,368 |
| 1998 | 120,581 |
| 1999 | 125,334 |
| 2000 | 133,621 |
| 2001 | 129,506 |
| 2002 | 126,090 |
| 2003 | 123,117 |
| 2004 | 128,507 |
| 2005 | 137,627 |
| 2006 | 141,175 |
| 2007 | 142,791 |
| 2008 | 144,023 |
| 2009 | 138,437 |
| 2010 | 125,808 |
| 2011 | 122,201 |
| 2012 | 130,911 |
| 2013 | 134,777 |
| 2014 | 138,553 |
| 2015 | 147,923 |
| 2016 | 149,023 |
| 2017 | 160,558 |
| 2018 | 177,460 |

Source: EPI calculations from AFL-CIO's "Death on the Job, The Toll of Neglect, 2019" data on OSHA compliance officers from 1978-2018 and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data on the total number of employees covered by unemployment insurance programs in the U.S from 1978–2017. At the time of writing, full year 2018 data were not available, so the 2018 number of covered workers is imputed as the 2017 QCEW value multiplied by the ratio of the 2018 annual average of all employees in the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey to the 2017 CES annual average.
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