Small Business - Research

NIOSH Program Portfolio: Small Business Assistance
The NIOSH Small Business Assistance Program works with partners in industry, labor, trade associations, professional organizations, and academia.

NIOSHTIC-2 search results on Small Business
Searchable bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and journal articles supported in whole or in part by NIOSH.

Worker Injury and Illness Average Incidence Rates by Industry and Establishment Sizeexternal icon
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides these data annually.

• They are under the “Quartile Data” heading on this BLS page. Note that “establishment” means a location where economic activity is conducted.
• One firm or enterprise may operate multiple establishments.
• Note: Some researchers have attributed lower incidence rates for establishments with fewer than 10 employees to possible under-reporting.

Select Journal Articles

Brown CE, Cunningham TR, Newman LS, Schulte PA (Eds.). (2018). Special Issue on the “Understanding Small Enterprises” USE Conference 2017external icon. Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 62(1).

Schwatka NV, Tenney L, Dally MJ, Scott J, Brown CE, Weitzenkamp D, Shore E, and Newman LS. (2018). Small business Total Worker Health: a conceptual and methodological approach to facilitating organizational changeexternal icon. Occupational Health Science, 2(1), 25-41.

Cunningham TR, Guerin RJ, Keller BM, Flynn MA, Salgado C, and Hudson D. (2018). Differences in safety training among smaller and larger construction firms with non-native workers: evidence of overlapping vulnerabilitiesexternal icon. Safety Science, 103, 62-69.

Keller BM and Cunningham TR. (2016). Firefighters as distributors of workplace safety and health information to small businessespdf iconexternal icon. Safety Science, 87: 87-91.

Cunningham TR and Sinclair R. (2015). Application of a model for delivering occupational safety and health to smaller businesses: Case studies from the USexternal icon. Safety Science, 71(C): 213-225.

Cunningham TR, Sinclair R, and Schulte P. (2014). Better understanding the small business construct to advance research on delivering workplace health and safetyexternal icon. Small Enterprise Research, 21(2).

Sinclair RC and Cunningham TR. (2014). Safety activities in small businessesexternal icon. Safety Science, 64: 32-38.

Wurzelbacher S J, Bertke SJ, Lampl MP, Bushnell PT, Meyers AR, Robins DC and Al-Tarawneh IS. (2014). The effectiveness of insurer-supported safety and health engineering controls in reducing workers’ compensation claims and costsexternal icon. Am. J. Ind. Med., 57: 1398–1412.

Sinclair RC, Cunningham TR and Schulte PA. (2013). A model for occupational safety and health intervention diffusion to small businessesexternal icon. Am. J. Ind. Med., 56: 1442–1451.