Firm size and occupational injury and illness incidence rates in manufacturing industries.

Information was gathered from a Department of Labor (DOL) publication on firm size and occupational injuries and illnesses. Twenty-eight large industries were selected which contained information on injury and illness rates for all eight categories of firm sizes. The injury and illness information was matched to data on percent of production workers, percent women, weekly earnings and weekly hours in the 28 industries. After controlling for gender, earnings, hours and percent production workers, as well as idiosyncratic effects of the particular industries, the evidence suggests that very small firms (1-19 employees) and very large firms (1,000 employees or more) have the fewest injuries and illnesses, and medium sized firms, 20 to 999 employees, have the most.