The UK construction industry is facing a significant but often overlooked productivity challenge, with millions of working days lost due to preventable injuries and work-related ill health. New analysis of data from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) highlights the scale of the issue. Across all industries, 7.1m working days were lost during 2024/25 due to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) – conditions such as back pain, joint strain and repetitive injuries that are particularly prevalent in construction.
Within the sector, an estimated 79,000 construction workers are currently suffering from work-related ill health (based on a three-year average), while construction continues to record one of the highest non-fatal injury rates in the UK economy.
Crucially, construction also has the highest rate of work-related musculoskeletal disorders of any major UK industry, with around 2,000 cases per 100,000 workers – approximately 70% higher than the all-industry average.
A £1.4bn drag on productivity
HSE estimates place the annual cost of workplace injuries and ill health in construction at £1.4bn, driven by lost output, project delays, and reduced workforce capacity.
Musculoskeletal disorders alone account for 27% of all work-related ill health cases and 20% of all working days lost due to ill health, underlining their disproportionate impact on productivity.
Building on this, analysis by health and safety technology company Intasite estimates that between 1.1m and 1.4m working days are lost in construction each year due to musculoskeletal disorders alone.
The estimate, based on applying construction’s share of work-related ill health to national data on days lost, is likely to be conservative given the sector’s significantly higher-than-average injury rates.
While safety in construction is often framed around major incidents and fatalities, the data points to a more persistent and systemic issue: everyday injuries that accumulate over time and quietly erode the industry’s ability to deliver.
The workforce impact
The problem is particularly acute in the skilled construction and building trades, meaning the workers most affected are also the most critical to project delivery.
Injury-related absences reduce the available workforce, increase reliance on temporary labour, and place additional pressure on projects already operating at capacity.
Back injuries account for the largest share of cases (around 43%), followed by upper limb and neck conditions, highlighting the continued physical strain on workers across the sector.
Despite long-term improvements in workplace safety, progress on work-related ill health has largely stalled, with current rates now broadly in line with pre-pandemic levels.
A preventable problem
The underlying causes of these injuries – manual handling, repetitive tasks, and physically demanding working positions – point to systemic issues in how work is planned, communicated, and executed.
According to Intasite, many of these risks originate before work even begins.
Danielle Croce, Director at Intasite, said: “Many of the injuries leading to lost working days could be avoided with better planning, onboarding and clearer communication on site.
“Our analysis discovered that more than one million of those lost days come from musculoskeletal disorders in construction alone. That’s a huge operational burden – one that often goes unnoticed because it builds gradually over time rather than through major incidents.
“A huge proportion of this lost time stems from issues that arise before a worker even sets foot on site. If inductions and other aspects of onboarding are inconsistent, safety information isn’t clearly understood, or compliance isn’t properly verified, the risk is effectively built into the project from day one.”