WASHINGTON—Workplace injuries and accidents that cause employees to miss six or more days of work cost U.S. employers nearly $62 billion in 2013, according to the 2016 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index.

DEARBORN, MI—Since 2003, Ford has reduced the injury rate by 70 percent for its more than 50,000 “industrial athletes” in the U.S., and many more around the world, through new ergonomics technology, lift-assist devices, workstation redesign and data-driven process changes.

The rate of nonfatal occupational injury and illness cases requiring days away from work to recuperate was 117 cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2011, statistically unchanged from 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.