There are several types of secondary data. They can include information from the Census, a company’s health and safety records such as their injury rates, or other government statistical information such as the number of workers in different sectors across Canada.
Secondary data tends to be readily available and inexpensive to obtain. In addition, secondary data can be examined over a longer period of time. For example, you can look at a company’s lost-time rates over several years to see at trends.
In the same Institute study mentioned above, the researchers also examined secondary data. They looked at workers’ compensation lost-time claims and the amount of time workers were receiving wage replacement benefits.
With a combination of these two data sources, the researchers were able to determine which factors predicted a shorter work absence among injured workers. This information was shared with return-to-work professionals to help improve return to work for other injured workers.