Drug use was unchanged nationwide among “safety-sensitive” workers – a group that includes truckers – according to an annual study by Quest Diagnostics.

The figures were part of the company’s Drug Testing Index, which covered the first half of 2003. They showed that 2.5 percent of safety-sensitive workers nationwide who were checked for drugs on the job tested positive – about the same number as last year. Among the general U.S. workforce, the figures were nearly double, and higher than last year.

Drug use among those workers who were tested for cause was down, as was use among those who receive period tests, post-accident tests and those who returned to duty after a previous positive result. Positive tests were steady among those who received random tests. However, drug use was up among workers who took pre-employment tests.

Last year, drug use was down nationwide among “safety-sensitive” workers, running roughly half of use among the general U.S. workforce.