In an announcement released on March 14th, the U.S. Census Bureau discussed the unemployment rate of workers with disabilities based on the new Disability Employment Tabulation. The statistics show that individuals with disabilities only account for 6% of the labor force, with more than 50% of disabled workers limited to jobs in four general occupation groups: service workers (18.2%); administrative support (15.1%); sales workers (10.4%); and management, business and finance (8.9%).
Within these job groups, the most common occupations are: janitors and building cleaners; drivers/sales workers and truck drivers; cashiers; retail salespeople; dishwashers; refuse and recyclable collectors; and personal care aides. More than half of the workers with disabilities were found to earn about 75% of what equally situated workers without disabilities would earn.
The Census Bureau will release the data in its entirety by the end of April. DCI will provide further information about the Disability Employment Tabulation in future posts.
by Margaret Lentz and Fred Satterwhite, DCI Consulting Group