Disabled Workers

Employment Situation

Employment data from both the United States and Great Britain indicate that people with disabilities continue to be engaged in employment at substantially lower rates when compared to nondisabled people. Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, based on the Current Population Survey (CPS) of 2011, indicate a 48.9 percentage point difference in employment rates between people (over age 16) with disabilities (20.6 percent) and those without disabilities (69.5 percent). Disability is defined in the CPS as a “health problem or disability which prevents [individuals] from working or which limits the kind or amount of work they can do.” Employment rates also vary by type of disability. Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, based on the American Population Survey of 2009, show that individuals with hearing disability are more likely to be employed compared to those with visual disabilities, followed by individuals with ambulatory, cognitive, self-care, and independent living disabilities.

In 2011, in Britain, 48.8 percent of working-age (16–60 years old for women; 16–65 years old for men) people with disabilities were employed, compared with 77.5 percent of nondisabled people, a gap of almost 29 percentage points. As in the United States, employment rates vary with type of impairment. For example, estimates of employment rates for those with problems of the legs or feet were between 40.3 and 46.2 percent; for those with mental illnesses, they were between 11.5 and 17.7 percent; and for those with severe learning disabilities (U.S. intellectual disabilities) or specific learning disabilities (U.S. learning disabilities), they were between 7.7 and 16.7 percent. Figures are from the UK ODI, obtained from the UK Labour Force Survey that incorporates the 2010 Equality Act definition of disability as “a physical or mental impairment [with] substantial and long-term adverse effect on [one's] ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.”

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