The incidence of workers' compensation injuries in Montanacontinues to decline, the state Department of Labor said thisweek.

Department officials said that before a package of reforms wereimposed in 2011, Montana was the most expensive state in the nationto buy such insurance. In rankings released late last year, Montanamoved up seven slots.

The agency's recent annual workers' compensation report said thenumber of claims decreased about 4 percent compared to 2011.

"As a state we are making great strides in preventing workplaceaccidents and I firmly believe the number of claims will continueto go down," DOL commissioner Pam Bucy wrote in her report.

Bucy said the state is seeing the positive effects of the reformlegislation passed. She said the agency will also be reconveningthe Labor Management Advisory Council to further study the impact.Membership includes workers, business managers and others affectedby the issue.

Diana Ferriter, administrator for the Employment RelationsDivision, said that the cost of the insurance dropped another 5percent in Montana this summer. Last year there was no changefollowing a steep decline of 22 percent in the summer of 2011 afterthe legislation was signed into law.

"These trends we are seeing in reduced number of claims andcontrolling medical costs will just help our economy in the statewhile also keeping workers safe and healthy during their work life.And hopefully it is a sign that things will improve," she said.

Ferriter said a big issue remains Montana's relatively high rateof workplace injuries. She said the state still injures workers atmuch higher rates than elsewhere. And the injuries aren'trestricted to jobs most people consider high risk, likeconstruction or mining.

In the past year, health care and social assistance workers hadthe highest rate of workers' compensation injuries. The other mostinjury-prone fields were public administration, retail, education,food services, followed by construction and manufacturing.

The most common injury was a strain, followed by falling ortripping, and then being struck by an object.