Wholesale and Retail Trade Program

Two retail employees sharing concerns about information on screen.

The Wholesale and Retail Trade (WRT) program provides leadership to prevent diseases, injuries and fatalities in wholesale and retail trade workers. Through our partnerships and research efforts, we are able to address the injuries and illnesses affecting wholesale and retail trade workers, especially among workers who are economically and socially marginalized.

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From Brick and Mortar to Beyond: Protecting Workers in the Wholesale and Retail Trade Industries

This NIOSH Science Blog reflects on 15 years of the Wholesale and Retail Program, describing changes in the sector and key accomplishments.

Sector Description

The NIOSH Wholesale and Retail Trade sector program is focused on the prevention of occupational fatal and nonfatal injuries and illnesses for nearly 19 million workers and includes all jobs under NAICS code 42 & 44-45. WRT subsectors includes the nondurable and durable goods merchant wholesalers, building material and garden equipment and supply stores, food and beverage stores, furniture and home furnishing stores, general merchandise stores, and motor vehicle and parts dealers.

Research Priorities

The WRT program has selected research priorities on the basis of burden, need, and impact and collaborated with other NIOSH research programs to write the research goals in the NIOSH Strategic Plan for FYs 2019-2024. The priority areas are:

  • Reducing occupational musculoskeletal disorders among an aging workforce and through use of emerging technologies.
  • Preventing traumatic injuries such as falls on the same level and motor vehicle crashes.
  • Promoting safe and healthy work design to improve safety and health among workers in non-standard work arrangements, young workers and other  workers who are economically and socially marginalized
Accomplishments

The Wholesale and Retail Trade Program PPOP | NIOSH | CDC offers a snapshot of NIOSH programs’ priorities, strategies used to make progress towards priorities, recent accomplishments, and upcoming work.

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Resources
More information on specific workplace safety and health topics and useful resources can be found on the following pages:


NORA Council

The WRT program helps lead the NORA Wholesale and Retail Trade Sector Council, which brings together individuals and organizations to share information, form partnerships, and promote adoption and dissemination of solutions that work. The Council seeks to facilitate the most important research, understand the most effective intervention strategies, and learn how to implement those strategies to achieve sustained improvements in workplace practice. The council authored the National Occupational Research Agenda for Wholesale and Retail Trade.


Contact
Contact the Wholesale and Retail Trade program with any questions at RETAILWRKR@CDC.GOV