SECTION 01
Workplace environment
Safety confidence remains high, but the trend is downward
Starting with the positives: our 2026 results show that 80% of North American workers agree or strongly agree that their workplace is safe (USA 79%, Canada 81%). Employer efforts to address workplace environment issues and involve staff were acknowledged by 70% of workers across the region (USA 69%, Canada 71%).
However, both figures have edged down from 2025, when 81% of North American workers reported feeling safe at work (USA 80%, Canada 82%).
What is ‘workplace environment’?
The term workplace environment can encompass many things. For the purposes of this survey, ‘workplace environment’ refers to everything that affects how we feel at work:
· Physically
· Mentally
· Socially
Safety is a deciding factor for workers choosing (and staying with) an employer
Workplace safety isn’t just a retention issue, but a recruitment one. When asked whether the physical safety of the work environment is an important factor in choosing an employer, 77% of North American workers say yes. The response is notably stronger in Canada (81%) than in the USA (75%).
The stakes are equally clear on turnover: 78% of workers agree that a poor workplace environment could lead them to change jobs (USA 76%, Canada 80%).
Almost half of workers have been personally affected by a workplace accident or illness
47% of North American respondents say that they or a relative have been affected by a workplace accident or work-related illness: 28% personally and 19% through a relative. This figure has increased slightly from 46% in 2025. USA respondents reported slightly higher personal experience (29%) compared to Canadian workers (25%).
The 18–34 age bracket is most likely to have experienced an incident themselves or have a relative that has (56%), compared to the 35–49 bracket (51%) and the 50–65 bracket (30%).
Official data really puts personal experience into context. In the USA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 5,070 fatal work injuries in 2024 (equivalent to a worker dying roughly every 104 minutes) down from 5,283 in 2023, with a fatal injury rate of 3.3 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.
Separately, the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses recorded about 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injury and illness cases in private industry in the same year.
In Canada, the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada recorded 1,057 accepted workplace fatalities in 2023, the most recently published national total.
Both countries' figures are widely considered undercounts: research suggests that a substantial share of compensable workplace conditions in Canada go unreported to provincial compensation authorities, and comparable under-reporting pressures exist in the USA.
Stress is the leading cause of workplace accidents and illness
Among those who experienced or knew someone who experienced a workplace accident or work-related illness, stress was identified as a contributing factor by 56% of North American respondents overall. The country-level split is telling: 59% of USA workers link their experience to stress, compared to 51% in Canada.
This represents a clear reversal from 2025, when Canada recorded the higher stress-related rate of the two. In 2025, the pattern ran the other way, with Canada at 68% and the USA at just 44%. It is one of the most striking country-level shifts in the entire dataset.
The American Institute of Stress estimates that workplace stress costs US employers more than $300 billion annually in absenteeism, reduced productivity, and healthcare costs. In Canada, the Mental Health Commission of Canada has similarly identified psychological health and safety as one of the most significant and under-addressed workplace issues. Despite growing awareness on both sides of the border, employer action has not yet caught up with the scale of the problem.
Unfortunately, employer efforts to address stress lag in every other safety area measured. Only 61% of North American workers report that their employer has made efforts to prevent stress (USA 62%, Canada 58%). This is the lowest score across all five areas, and well below physical hazard assessment (73%), competency training (71%), incident awareness education (71%), and ergonomics improvement (63%).
Sharp rise in employer investment in physical hazard assessment
One of the more encouraging findings from this year's survey is a significant jump in employer efforts around physical hazard assessment (risk assessment). Across North America, 73% of workers say their employer made efforts in this area in 2026 (USA 75%, Canada 71%), up from 58% in 2025. This is a 15-percentage-point increase that moves it from last place to the top spot.
Education about workplace issues, incidents, and near-misses that require reporting rose, from 68% in 2025 to 71% in 2026, with competency training also up from 69% to 71%. Together, these shifts point to genuine investment in core safety practices. While the direction of travel is encouraging, stress prevention remains the stubborn exception to an otherwise improving picture.
Workers are clear on what they want
When asked what employers could do better on workplace safety, the top response across the region is ensuring more employees work specifically on safety, through dedicated hires or training existing staff into safety roles, selected by 38% of North American workers (USA 38%, Canada 39%).
'Conduct more safety training for all staff' was a new option in 2026 and landed immediately in second place across the region. It was particularly popular in Canada, where it actually topped the country's list at 40%, ahead of the North American average of 36% and the USA figure of 35%.
In third place, 31% of North American workers call for better access to digital tools for safety information and reporting (USA 32%, Canada 28%).
What’s the payoff if more was invested in workplace safety? According to North American workers, the biggest improvements would be seen in:
More satisfied staff (37% overall, with Canada particularly strong at 39%)
Better departmental communication
More focus on safety
It’s worth noting that Canadian respondents consistently selected a higher proportion across many benefit options compared to their American counterparts, suggesting a workforce that sees significant untapped potential in employer-led safety investment across the board.
