What is the difference between job safety analysis and job hazard analysis?

The early term, Job Analysis (JA), became Job Safety Analysis (JSA), and in recent years, the term Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) came to the forefront.

Even today, many confuse JSA with JHA.  JSA has probably been used more than any of these analysis systems, but it only considers three things:

1. The specific job steps needed to complete the job,
2. The hazard or hazards involved with each step, and
3. The safety measures used to avoid the hazard in each step.

JHA adds “risk assessment” to the JSA procedure by including an evaluation of risk (at each step), and by classifying and identifying “probability” and “severity.”  And that is the major distinction between JSA and JHA.

“The JHA is used to assess the existing and potential hazards of a job, understand the consequences of risk, and act as an aid in helping identify, eliminate, and control hazards” (Roughton, James E. and Nathan Crutchfield, Job Hazard Analysis: A Guide for Voluntary Compliance and Beyond, Elsevier Inc., Oxford, UK, 2008).