Another Look at the Effects of Age Cohort,Job Family and Task Variety on Industrial Accident Rates

Abstract

Over the past several years a general pattern of aging has been prevalent in the American work force, and it is felt that if industry is to cope it must become aware of age's effects on human performance. A study conducted by Schmidt and Petree (1984) demonstrated that age, job and task were all significant factors that effect the number of accidents experienced by workers, and more importantly they interact with one another, indicating that some jobs and tasks impact older/younger workers more favorably than others. The present effort is an extension of that work that incorporates additional data which serve to more clearly define the earlier reported relationships and distinguish their practical application.