What changed between 2020 and now that made young New Zealand workers suddenly, dramatically safer?

The numbers are stark. In 2020, ACC recorded 39,297 serious injuries to workers aged 0-29. By 2024, that figure had collapsed to 15,957. That's a 60% drop in just four years.

This isn't a gentle downward trend. It's a cliff. Something fundamental shifted in New Zealand workplaces, and it happened fast.

The timeline tells the story. Youth workplace injuries held steady for two decades, hovering around 35,000 to 40,000 annually. Then 2020 arrived. By 2022, the number had been cut in half. It's stayed there ever since. (Source: Stats NZ / ACC, fatal-serious-injuries)

The obvious answer is COVID. Lockdowns kept young workers home. Hospitality shut down. Construction slowed. Retail reduced hours. All the industries that employ teenagers and twentysomethings, all the sectors with high injury rates, went quiet.

But here's what's interesting: the numbers stayed low. Even as the economy reopened, even as insurance companies report surging claims for weather damage and other risks, youth workplace injuries haven't bounced back.

In 2024, we're still recording fewer than 16,000 serious injuries to young workers. That's less than half the 2019 baseline.

So what's keeping them safe? Did COVID force safety improvements that stuck? Are young people working different jobs now, less physical, less risky? Did businesses lose staff during the pandemic and never rehire at the same levels, meaning fewer young bodies in harm's way?

Or is something else going on? Are young workers simply working less? Youth unemployment has been climbing. Participation rates have shifted. If fewer young people are in the workforce at all, fewer will get hurt.

The data can't tell us which explanation is right. It can only tell us the outcome: New Zealand workplaces are dramatically safer for young people than they were five years ago.

That's 23,000 fewer serious injuries each year. Twenty-three thousand young Kiwis who didn't break a bone, didn't tear a ligament, didn't end up in hospital or off work for weeks.

Whatever caused this drop, whether it's better safety culture, different employment patterns, or simple economics, it's working. The question is whether we know how to keep it working.