INFOSTORY - Safety And Health At Work: Why Are Youth At Risk? by Blossom

Today in the world there are 541 million young workers, accounting for over 15 per cent of the global labour force.
What does it mean to be young workers in 2018?
With 313 million workers suffering from non-fatal work-related injury and illness every year, young people are up to 40 per cent more likely to suffer a work-related injury than older workers.
Many feel pressure to accept the first job offer they get, often without considering if the working conditions put their health and safety at risk. This is a problem, since young workers suffer from injury and illness on the job at far higher rates than their adult counterparts.
Poor occupational safety and health practices cost an estimated 4 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product each year, almost 3 trillion in US Dollars. A young person who is gravely injured at work potentially represents years of lost productivity.

Blossom was contacted to tell this story digitally, on the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s infostories website. The InfoStories website offers interactive narratives based on research findings from the International Labour Organization. Each issue presents a unique perspective on a labour-related theme, told through a narrative enriched with interactive data visualizations, videos, maps and case studies.

The challenge for Blossom was to find a new way to disclose this situation, making it interesting, clear, engaging and universal. We have chosen an editorial approach, where illustrations are more able to bring stories to life and entice readers to engage with content. The data and information are broken down in “sub-chapters” and illustrated, depicting common situations happening daily to young workers in the labour market all over the world. Each illustration is animated, to make the depicted situations more realistic and “alive”. Data and information are accessible by clicking to buttons, taking the user to new tabs with numbers and percentages, to case-studies and stories or to multimedia materials. The experience we propose is an information travel, a new digital narrative in the daily life of young workers, to make the user aware of the too many risks they face.