People With Disabilities Regardless Of Other Demographics Experience Employment Gaps
Disabled people are less likely to work than nondisabled people, regardless of their race, ethnicity, sex, or age. Within the disability community, however, older people and workers of color tend to experience even more acute employment gaps. This analysis demonstrates that within each subpopulation, disabled workers have the worst employment outcomes. Disability lies at the center of labor market disparities, exacerbating every other inequality. The intersectional identities of workers point to ways to improve the labor market, and addressing the challenges and barriers that disabled workers face will have significant impacts for disabled workers, all other workers, and the stability and growth of the labor market overall.
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Gender
In 2021, the overall U.S. employment story was one of a continued gap between men and women. Surprisingly, the gender gap in labor force participation among disabled workers decreased. While both men and women with at least one disability, ages 16 to 64, saw increases in their participation and employment rates and declines in their unemployment rates, disabled women saw larger gains.16 In fact, women with at least one disability ages 16 to 64 are now employed at their highest levels on recordthough a slight employment gender gap still remains within the disability community. However, both men and women with at least one disability remain employed at significantly lower rates than those without a disability.17
Figure 4
Age
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What Data Source Should I Use
The estimates provided on this website are based on analyses of three different data sources: the American Community Survey , Current Population Survey , and Census 2000. Each data source has different strengths and use different questions to identify disability. The data source you should use depends on the type of information you are interested in.
Generally if you are looking for:
The most detailed and up to date estimates:
- The ACS data is likely the best choice, including 6 disability types and a wide variety of topics.
Trends over time:
- The CPS can provide historical time trends at the national and state levels from the 1980s for persons with a “work limitation disability” including prevalence, poverty, and several employment measures.
Data on smaller sub-state areas:
- Census 2000 estimates provide the most geographically specific information, but are based on data collected in 2000.
- The US Census Bureau American Factfinder website provides some basic ACS based disability data for areas with populations of 60,000 or more. Please contact us for instructions on how to access these data tables.
If you can’t find what you are looking for, please go to our Help Page to contact our researchers who may be able to help.
Persons With Disabilities Often Earn Less
In the majority of countries with available data, persons with disabilities earn less per month than those without, which has direct implications for their purchasing power and living standards. Although the earnings gap may be due to the fact that many persons with disabilities work part-time, their lower monthly earnings limit their ability to consume and put them at a higher risk of falling into poverty.
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Hiring Discrimination Is Pervasive
PBS News Hour recently investigated the situation, looking at new employment discrimination research and interviewing job seekers with disabilities. Economist Doug Kruse, interviewed in the segment, recently headed a study on employment discrimination, sending out 6000 resumes and looking at the response rate for resumes and cover letters that state the job seeker has a disability and those that didnt. Candidates with disabilities received 26% fewer callbacks.
Kruse says that this reluctance to even interview candidates with disabilities is due to fear of the unknown. Hiring managers and HR pros worry that candidates with disabilities might burden the company in some way, or just make them and their colleagues uncomfortable. Theres a lot of discomfort with people with disabilities. I think Oh, geez, someone with a spinal cord injury, Im not sure theyre going to fit in here.
In short, the lower response rate observed for candidates with disabilities is due to ignorance and prejudice. These are not challenges candidates can simply overcome with a great resume or interview, theyre bone deep and systematic biases that arent quickly eliminated by good data or better training. Theyre driven by the sense that employing people with disabilities is somehow more difficult and costly than employing people without disabilities, and even more fundamentally, that people with disabilities are a burden.
A Florida Scorecard Research Project
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As Florida prepares for its future workforce including the continuing retirement of baby boomers, each component of the potential workforce can contribute to the estimated two million additional jobs needed in Florida by 2030. One component of the workforce analyzed here is the population of Floridians with disabilities. There is no regularly-published data on the employment and unemployment rates for Floridians with disabilities. Indeed, the only monthly data available is at a national level. To establish a starting point that can be used for future analysis of the effectiveness of programs designed to help Floridians with disabilities who want to work, this paper estimates both a state-wide unemployment rate for persons with disabilities in Florida as well as unemployment rates for individual counties.
This newly-produced data will be used on The Florida Scorecard and will offer Florida policymakers a new tool to help quantify the amount of progress Florida makes over the next several years in utilizing Floridians with disabilities in the states workforce.
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Unemployment Rates For Disabled And Non
5 October 2022
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Disabled people are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people. This ratio is nearly the same as it was in 2014.
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Unemployment rates are lower than in 2014. In 2021 the unemployment rate for disabled people was 8.1% compared to 4.2% for non-disabled people.
Unemployment rates fell for both disabled and non-disabled people between 2014 and 2019, with minor increases seen in the most recent two years.
The unemployment rate for disabled people is almost double the unemployment rate for non-disabled people . There was little change in this ratio between 2014 and 2021.
Unemployment can affect peoples health in several ways: it can act as a source of stress, and deprive people of income and social networks. Because of this, it is important that disabled people have opportunities for high quality work and inclusion in the workplace. The data suggests that being disabled can affect employment outcomes, depending on the nature of the impairment and the extent to which employers make adaptations.
Although closing the gap between the unemployment rates for disabled and non-disabled people has been government policy since 2015, very little progress has been made. The ratio between the two rates has stayed similar since 2014. Current policy approaches have not been enough to close this gap.
Unemployment is defined as people actively seeking and being available for work, as defined by the International Labour Organisation .
Why Those With Disabilities Struggle To Find Work
Altiraifi claims a lack of enforcement of the ADA, and algorithmic assessments by large corporations, are contributing to the unemployment rate of people with disabilities. “What ends up happening in the process is that people with disabilities are being screened out because they don’t present in ways that are considered normative by these algorithmic assessments,” explained Altiraifi.
The Brookings Institution has noted the concerns of using employment algorithms like artificial intelligence. If an applicant with a disability displays facial features or mannerisms during a video interview that the algorithm is not familiar with, the person will receive a low score on their application.
Other complex issues contribute to the unemployment rate, especially when looking into racial demographics of people with disabilities. For example, unemployment among African Americans and Latino folks with disabilities has increased since last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
Kahn-Pauli says one reason for the rise of unemployment in the Latino population is due to fear of President Donald Trump’s administration. For example, the public charge rule took effect on Feb. 24, which bars admission to the United States for those who are likely to use public benefits. It also affects those who previously used public benefits, who are seeking to change their nonimmigrant status.
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Unemployment Falls Back To Half
The pandemic increase in the length of the average workweek has been completely reversed.
The December employment report showed a very strong labor market but much less evidence of inflationary pressures than in prior months. The unemployment rate fell back to 3.5 percent, its half-century low. The U-6 measure of labor market slack fell to 6.5 percent, its lowest level on record.
At the same time, wage growth moderated. There was a sharp downward revision to the November data. With 0.3 percent growth in the average hourly wage reported for December, the annualized rate over the last three months is just 4.1 percent, a sharp slowing from the 6 percent rate at the start of the year.
It also looks like we will see very good productivity growth in the fourth quarter of 2022. The index of aggregate hours fell 0.1 percent in December after falling 0.2 percent in November, leaving hours growing at an annual rate of 1.1 percent. GDP growth likely to be over 3 percent in the quarter suggests strong productivity growth, although a jump in reported self-employment will dampen the number.
Labor Market Data Show Less Employment And Job
Two key indicators demonstrate the challenges for disabled people in the labor market: the employment and unemployment rates. In 2021, nearly 6 million people with at least one disability were employed in the labor market, an increase of 600,000 compared with 2020.6 This increase is likely, in part, a reflection of the fact that as more people became disabled during the pandemic, the makeup of the disabled population changed to include more people who already had jobs. There are also the implications of a tight labor market in which employers are lowering barriers for hiring.7 While 19.1 percent of people with at least one disability were employed in 2021, that number is more than three times larger for those without a disability.8 This gap has persisted since 2009the first year for which annual data are available. If disabled workers experienced the same employment rate as those without a disability, nearly 14 million more disabled people would have been employed in 2021.9
Figure 1
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How Much Do People With A Disability Earn When They Are Employed
When employed, people with disabilities earn lower wages, on average, than workers without disabilities. Having a disability reduced the average gross weekly wages of females by $110 and males by $105 in 1998, compared with people without disabilities.
The overall levels of income earned by people with disabilities are also lower than those without disabilities. In 2003, the median gross personal income per week of people of working age with a disability was $255, compared to $501 for those without a disability.
Income varies according to the type of disability. For example, the income of people with sensory and mobility disabilities is higher than that of people with psychiatric disabilities.
Appendix: How Is Disability Assessed
The data used in this report are from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series-Current Population Survey.87 The Current Population Survey is a monthly survey of households that is used to assess the labor force. In 2021, more than 31 million people, or 11.9 percent, within the civilian noninstitutional population were identified as having a disability88an increase of 1.2 million people compared with 2020.89 Since 2008, the CPS has included questions to identify people with a disability:90
This month we want to learn about people who have physical, mental, or emotional conditions that cause serious difficulty with their daily activities. Please answer for household members who are 15 years old or over.
Is anyone deaf or does anyone have serious difficulty hearing? Is anyone blind or does anyone have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses? Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does anyone have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions? Does anyone have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs? Does anyone have difficulty dressing or bathing? Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does anyone have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctors office or shopping?
While collecting data on people with disabilities in the labor force is a welcome and necessary step, the Bureau of Labor Statistics must work to improve its methodology.
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Unemployment Rate Is Not Equal To 70%
There is often confusion between the employment rate and unemployment rate. This confusion is understandable. The employment rate is the percentage of all persons who have a job:
| Employment Rate = | Ã 100 |
The unemployment rate is the percentage of persons in the labor force who do not have a job:
| Unemployment Rate = | Ã 100, |
where the labor force includes people who have a job, are on layoff, or who actively searched for work in the last four weeks. Notice that all persons are used in the calculation of the employment rate, while only persons in the labor force are used in the calculation of the unemployment rates i.e. the base populations of the two measures are different.
Consider the following questions. Should a full-time college student who does not hold a job be considered unemployed? Should a full-time retiree be considered unemployed? Neither is working in the labor market and both are considered to be out of the labor force, unless they are actively searching for a job. The inset boxes below contain the definitions used by the Census Bureau when disseminating statistics from the 2000 Decennial Census and definition used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Monthly Current Population Survey.
| Number of persons who do not have a job but are actively looking for work | Ã 100 |
| Employment Rate |
What Are The Participation And Unemployment Rates For People With Disabilities
Fewer people with disabilities participate in the workforce than those without disabilities. More people with disabilities are unemployed than those without disabilities.
In 2003, 53.2 per cent of people with disabilities participated in the labour force as compared to 80.6 per cent of those without a disability. Since 1993, the labour force participation rate of people with disabilities has fallen, while the rate for people without disabilities has risen.
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How Does Australia Compare To The Rest Of The World
Australia has the seventh lowest employment rate for people with disabilities in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development . In 2003, nearly two thirds of the OECD countries measured had better employment rates than Australia for people with disabilities.
Recent OECD research found that Australia has the lowest average personal income for people with disabilities, at 44 per cent of the income of people without a disability.
Where Does The 54 Million Americans Living With A Disability Number Come From
Answer: The estimate of 54 million is from the Survey of Income and Program Participation data. The following report describes the method used to construct this estimate:
McNeil, J. . Americans with disabilities. Current Population Reports: Household studies, no. 1997. < >
The following is what that the McNeil report used to determine disability from the Survey of Income and Program Participation data. The report used a variety of different angles to try to get at disability that is quite different from the disability determination used in the Current Population Survey and the Decennial Census 2000.
Definitions of disability status, functional limitations, activities of daily living , and instrumental activities of daily living Individuals 15 years old and over were identified as having a disability if they met any of the following criteria:
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Overview Of The Quality Of Life Project
Phase I,
completed in 1991 and 1992, developed the conceptual framework and ways to measure quality of life of persons with developmental disabilities.| Phase II, completed in 1993, involved validation of the measures and field testing the methodology. |
| Phase III of the project was initiated in August 1994 and completed in March 1999. The purpose of Phase III was to assess, over time, the quality of life of a representative sample of adults with developmental disabilities who live in Ontario, with a view to assessing the policy objectives of the Ministry of Community and Social Services. |
The Quality of Life Project assessed thequality of life of 504 adults with developmental disabilities.The participants were randomly selected from among those whoreceive support from community agencies in 23 areas throughoutOntario. These 23 areas were also randomly selected from all ofOntario’s counties, regional municipalities, cities, anddistricts. In addition, participants were selected from allSchedule I and some Schedule II facilities across the province.
Our sample included men and women who:
