Research Report · Report 6 in Volume 1 · 2026
A Companion Brief
This companion brief examines safety-related context from the broader nationwide study of multiskilling in U.S. construction, drawing on three sources of supplemental evidence: contractor-reported safety data, site-visit observations, and the potential safety relevance of reduced work-area density and crew handoffs.
Safety Data at a Glance — 2024, Contractor-Reported
The nationwide study was designed to investigate multiskilling's relationship to productivity, workforce utilization, and crew-level performance — not as a formal safety audit or a causal comparison of injury outcomes between staffing approaches. The safety context in which the dataset was collected is nonetheless valuable to consider, and participating contractors emphasized that safety should never be treated as secondary when interpreting multiskilling.
Fifteen participating contractors voluntarily provided 2024 safety data representing approximately 33.2 million employee-hours. Across these reported hours, the contractors recorded 123 total recordable cases, 58 DART cases, and no fatalities.
Three sources of supplemental evidence:
Aggregate TRIR of 0.74 — 66% below the 2024 BLS construction benchmark of 2.20 — with a DART rate of 0.35 and an hours-weighted EMR of approximately 0.60.
Participating firms reported project pre-planning, task-specific planning, orientation and training, incident investigation, toolbox meetings, and tracking of leading and lagging indicators.
Site visits encountered standard access controls, PPE requirements, orientations, and task planning — no visible indication of multiskilling as uncontrolled or informal task switching.
Completing work with fewer workers could reduce congestion, trade stacking, and crew-to-crew handoffs — a potential safety mechanism, not a demonstrated outcome.
Recommended Citation
Lines, B., Smithwick, J., Ogundare, I., Kassa, R., & Sullivan, K. (2026). Contractor Safety Context: A Companion Brief. Multiskilling in the U.S. Construction Industry. Report 6 of 6 in Volume 1. Simplar Foundation. https://doi.org/10.22361/rqbtd63jwr
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