The number of claims made to the ACC for work-related injuries is in decline, according to provisional figures for 2008.
Statistic New Zealand says rate of injury has also fallen, when dividing the number of claims by the number of full-time equivalent employees.
In 2005, there were 246,800 work-related injury claims, including travel to or from work.
Two years later, the number was down nearly 12000 to 235,000.
The figure for 2008 is even lower, at just below 225,000.
Traditionally the most risky occupations, such as labouring, made up 292 cases per thousand in 2005, 273 in 2007 and 239 last year.
Entitlement claims for weekly compensation, treatment, rehabilitation and death payments fell from almost 35,000 in 2005 to just over 30,000 last year.
The number of men claiming outnumbered women by a ratio of almost 3 to 1.
The largest number of such claims, 7000, came from plant machine operators and assemblers - who accounted for 23%.
While the number of claims made by those aged 65 and over increased from 8800 in 2005 to 9600 two years later, that was also a drop in proportional representation.
