The number of workers compensation claims in North Dakota has dropped since 2014 – and the head of Workforce Safety and Insurance said it shows the weakness in the oil industry.
"Fiscal year 2014 was the peak of our filed claims," said WSI director Bryan Klipfel. "We had 26,500 claims filed. In fiscal 2016, which ended June 30th, we were down 5000 claims, to 21,300."
Klipfel said the amount of claims from out of state workers also dropped dramatically.
"When you look at a lot of the workers who came in from out of state working in the oil fields -- when they got hurt, they would go back to their home states to heal up," Klipfel said. "In FY 2014, we had 6000 claims filed with out of state addresses. Fast forward two years, and there were 3600 claims."
Klipfel said that was an 18 percent drop in filed claims over that two year period, and a 40 percent drop in out of state addresses.
"Both of those can be attributed to the decline of activity in the Bakken," Klipfel said.