In 2010, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a comprehensive overview of the 2006 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in the Wholesale and Retail Trade (WRT) sector. Recently, NIOSH researchers expanded on this study to include the ten years of BLS data that followed, for a richer, more complex view. The resulting article, “Wholesale and Retail Trade Sector Occupational Fatal and Nonfatal Injuries and Illnesses from 2006–2016: Implications for Intervention,” was recently published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The study reports on the WRT injury and illness burden, examines the underlying changes in demographics that could be contributing to safety and health risks, and highlights WRT subsectors that merit intervention. The study’s aim is to determine what progress has been made over the eleven-year period and to identify areas for intervention.
From 2006 through 2016, injury and illness rates declined overall for private industry, including the wholesale and retail trade sectors. For its size, the WRT workforce experienced a disproportionately 5% higher burden or share of serious work-related injuries and illnesses. WRT is one of the largest economic sectors in the United States – even a small increase in the burden affects large numbers of workers, their families, employers, and communities. Overexertion and bodily reaction, falls, and contact with objects contributed to more than 90% of the WRT injuries reported. In 2016, WRT nonfatal injuries cost employers more than $17 billion in workers’ compensation medical benefits and lost wages.