Background The aim of this study is to investigate the socio-demographic information and employment status for 2 years after diagnosis with occupational cancers.

Method In the Labor Registry Cohort of Taiwan during the period 2004–2015, 86 workers diagnosed with occupational cancers were identified. The cancer group included all kind of cancer diagnosed during this period. The cancer diagnoses were recorded according to the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology. Sex, age, industrial classifications, and occupational status were registered for the year 2004. The person’s annual wage and salary income was registered in New Taiwan Dollar (NTD) and divided into tertiles of 16500–22800, 24000–40100, and 42000–43 900.

Results There were 86 eligible workers with occupational cancers in our cohort study. All eligible participants were categorized into 2 groups based on their work status. There were 61 unemployed survivors with mean age of 53.05±8.3 and 25 employed survivors with mean age of 46.2±9.2 (table 1). Employed survivors had younger age and lower salary income than unemployed survivors. At 2 year of follow-up (figure 1), there was substantial declined trend for employment percentage (from 100% to 29%). For change of salary income, increased percentage of salary income change was observed. In different age groups (figure 2), young group aged 28–45 years had significantly higher employment percentages than older groups aged 46–55 years and 56–71 years. Notably, there were elevated percentage of salary income change in older group aged 56–71 years.

Conclusion Our study highlighted that the workers with occupational cancers had apparent dilemmas in the workplace 2 years after diagnosis.