The most common job roles in London and their risk of workplace accidents

New research has revealed London’s most common job roles and their risk of workplace accidents, with sales and retail assistants taking the top spot.

Accident compensation experts at Claims analysed ONS data to discover the most common job roles in London and offered expert insight into the workplace accidents that these workers can face.

146,860 Sales and retail assistants

Stocking shelves, organising stores, and processing payments are just some of the responsibilities of a sales assistant. Slips, trips, and falls make up approximately 40% of accidents that occur within retail, which can happen due to fallen merchandise and cluttered aisles. Most of the workplace accident claims from retail assistants come to an injury lawyer who can help. Finding the right person to ask advice from when there’s an accident at work is important!

In some cases, strains and sprains can occur from handling heavy objects without proper training or access to tools that can help with lifting.

100,740 Cleaners and domestics

Tidying up spillages, cleaning floors, restocking supplies, and handling waste disposal are a selection of the duties of a cleaner, but more than 3,000 severe accidents involving cleaners are reported to the Health & Safety Executive annually.

Wet floors from cleaning can result in slips if other cleaners have not used signage in the workspace. On top of this, cleaners typically use potent chemicals to clean surfaces and kill germs, but this can lead to skin injuries if the skin is exposed or even impact lung health due to inhalation if proper PPE is not provided.

81,445 Financial managers and directors

The role of a financial manager and director is managing resources, financial planning, and investing, which in turn contributes to an organisation’s financial stability and growth opportunities. With this role usually taking place in an office, the required working hours are approximately eight each day – however, this may be extended during busy work periods.

Staying seated at a desk for this amount of time can not only cause an increase in blood pressure due to the lack of movement, but it can also cause musculoskeletal disorders; between 2021-2022, 42% of work-related musculoskeletal disorders affected the back.

72,475 Care workers and home carers

While the responsibilities of a care home worker can vary, the typical day-to-day tasks include helping residents with personal care: showering, helping with social and physical activities, assisting with medication, and much more. However, these tasks can involve injuries such as strains, sprains, and fractures in areas like the hands and spine due to lifting and handling – in fact, approximately 1 in 3 accidents occur due to manual handling.

68,740 Administrative occupations

Working in administration requires a range of responsibilities, from maintaining filing systems and preparing documents to updating databases and processing invoices.

Completing these tasks involves using computer screens for long periods, with the working day in this role lasting approximately eight hours; if employers don’t allow staff to have regular breaks or provide equipment such as glare filters, this can lead to a type of eye strain known as computer vision syndrome, which affects around 60 million people across the globe.

A spokesperson for Claims said, “With there being a wide range of industries with the most common job roles in each city, this also means that there are a variety of workplace accidents and injuries that citizens are at risk of – from slips and falls to musculoskeletal disorders.”

“It’s vital that employers ensure the safety of their staff by providing the appropriate equipment, implementing safety protocols, and conducting regular checks on equipment; as an employee, it’s crucial to follow the measures that are in place to avoid facing a severe injury and in some instances result in unpaid time off work to recover.”