People who work in occupations that require precision and alertness show alarmingly high rates of problem drinking, according to an analysis of recent government data. Many of the occupations in which the problem is most widespread can be dangerous and/or require high-quality effort in order to ensure the safety of those who use the work product.

Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems examined the results of the federal government's 2002 National Survey of Drug Use and Health and found wide disparities in the prevalence of alcohol use among various occupations. The construction and agricultural occupations had the highest rates of problem drinking; protective service workers and professional specialists the lowest. Unhealthy drinking – also known as problem drinking or alcohol abuse – pervades the U.S. workforce. In fact, overall, some 9.1 percent of U.S. workers engage in unhealthy or risky drinking (including people who suffer from alcoholism).

Male-Dominated Occupations Have Higher Rates of Drinking Problems

Occupations with a higher proportion of male employees – and in many cases, younger men – have corresponding higher rates of people with drinking problems. In the construction field, for instance, 18.9 percent of workers (nearly one in five) drink in risky or unhealthy ways. This is nearly 2.5 times the proportion of professional employees with drinking problems. The government's classification of professionals includes, for example, architects, engineers, doctors, nurses, librarians and biologists.

Highly skilled workers such as elevator installers, bricklayers, miners and others in what the federal government calls “extractive and precision production occupations” also show very high levels of alcohol dependence or abuse (10.5 percent).

Absenteeism Rises

In most lines of work, problem drinkers have higher rates of absenteeism than their coworkers without alcohol problems – more than a full business week annually by technicians with alcohol problems, who miss 6.6 additional days. Agricultural workers with alcohol problems miss over ten and a half days more than their coworkers without alcohol problems. Such absenteeism can have a profound impact on the flow of work projects and on the overall productivity of a business.

Employers whose workforce includes occupations with a high incidence of alcohol problems would be especially well served by implementing policies that encourage treatment for problem drinking, as alcohol treatment can boost productivity and curb health care and workers' compensation costs. Ensuring Solutions has developed an Alcohol Cost Calculator to assist employers in calculating the extent and costs of untreated alcohol problems. The online tool is available at: www.alcoholcostcalculator.org. The Calculator indicates, for example, that a construction or mining company with 500 employees is likely to have 67 workers and 61 members of employees' families who have serious alcohol problems, generating 124 extra missed days of work and $159,415 in unnecessary health care costs.

Save on Business Costs

Employers can significantly lower their business costs and improve the health of employees by taking the steps outlined in the Ensuring Solutions publication Seven Tools to Lowering the Business Costs of Alcohol Problems. For this issue brief or other information about alcohol use and the workplace, visit www.ensuringsolutions.org.

Sources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2000. Alcohol Problems Among Emergency Department Patients: Proceedings of a Research Conference on Identification and Intervention. Atlanta.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “Substance Use, Dependence or Abuse Among Full-Time Workers.” The NHSDA Report. September 6, 2002. Bethesda: Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

U.S. Statistical Abstracts. 2000.

Kelli Joubran and Lynora Williams, February 2005