In 2021, 19.1 percent of persons with a disability were employed, up from 17.9 percent in 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. For persons without a disability, 63.7 percent were employed in 2021, up from 61.8 percent in the prior year. The unemployment rates for persons with and without a disability both declined from 2020 to 2021, to 10.1 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. Data for both groups reflect the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the labor market.
Data on persons with a disability are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households that provides statistics on employment and unemployment in the United States. Collection of the data on persons with a disability is sponsored by the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy. For more information, see the Technical Note in this news release.
Highlights from the 2021 data:
--Half of all persons with a disability were age 65 and over, nearly three times larger than the share for those with no disability. (See table 1.)
--Across all age groups, persons with disabilities were much less likely to be employed than those with no disabilities. (See table 1.)
--Across all educational attainment groups, unemployment rates for persons with a disability were higher than those for persons without a disability. (See table 1.)
--In 2021, 29 percent of workers with a disability were employed part time, compared with 16 percent for those with no disability. (See table 2.)
--Employed persons with a disability were more likely to be self-employed than those with no disability. (See table 4.)
Demographic characteristics
In 2021, persons with a disability accounted for 11.9 percent of the civilian noninstitutional population. Persons with a disability tend to be older than persons with no disability, reflecting the increased incidence of disability with age. In 2021, half of persons with a disability were age 65 and over, compared with 18 percent of those with no disability. Overall, women were somewhat more likely to have a disability than men, partly reflecting the greater life expectancy of women. In 2021, the prevalence of disability continued to be higher for Blacks and Whites than for Hispanics and Asians. (See table 1.)
Employment
The employment-population ratio--that is, the percent of the population that is employed-- for persons with a disability increased by 1.2 percentage points from the prior year to 19.1 percent in 2021. This was nearly the same ratio as in 2019 (19.3 percent), before the impact of the pandemic. The ratio for those without a disability, at 63.7 percent in 2021, increased by 1.9 percentage points over the year but was 2.6 percentage points lower than in 2019. The lower ratio among persons with a disability reflects, in part, the older age profile of persons with a disability; older workers are less likely to be employed, regardless of disability status. However, across all age groups, persons with a disability were much less likely to be employed than those with no disability. (See tables A and 1.)
In 2021, the employment-population ratio for persons with a disability ages 16 to 64 increased to 31.4 percent, while the ratio for persons without a disability in the same age group increased to 72.5 percent. The ratios for persons age 65 and over with a disability (6.9 percent) and without a disability (22.3 percent) showed little or no change from the prior year. (See table A.)
Persons with a disability were less likely to have completed a bachelor's degree and higher than those with no disability. Among both groups, those who had attained higher levels of education were more likely to be employed than those who had attained less education. Across all levels of education in 2021, persons with a disability were much less likely to be employed than were their counterparts with no disability. (Educational attainment data are presented for those age 25 and over.) (See table 1.)
Workers with a disability were more likely to be employed part time than those with no disability. Among workers with a disability, 29 percent usually worked part time in 2021, compared with 16 percent of those without a disability. The proportion of workers with a disability who worked part time for economic reasons was higher than their counterparts without a disability (4 percent, compared with 3 percent). These individuals were working part time because their hours had been reduced or because they were not able to find a full-time job. (See table 2.)
In 2021, persons with a disability were more likely to work in service occupations than those with no disability (18.2 percent, compared with 15.9 percent). Workers with a disability were also more likely than those with no disability to work in production, transportation, and material moving occupations (14.6 percent, compared with 12.6 percent) and sales and office occupations (21.4 percent, compared with 19.7 percent). Persons with a disability were less likely to work in management, professional, and related occupations than those without a disability (36.5 percent, compared with 42.7 percent). (See table 3.)
A larger share of workers with a disability were self-employed in 2021 than were those with no disability (9.6 percent versus 6.4 percent). In contrast, a smaller share of workers with a disability were private wage and salary workers (76.5 percent) than were those without a disability (80.0 percent). The proportion of persons employed in government was about the same for both persons with a disability and persons without a disability (13.9 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively). (See table 4.)
Unemployment
The unemployment rate for persons with a disability, at 10.1 percent in 2021, decreased by 2.5 percentage points from the previous year but remains higher than in 2019 (7.3 percent). The jobless rate for those with a disability was about twice as high as the rate for those without a disability. (Unemployed persons are those who did not have a job, were available for work, and were actively looking for a job in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.) The unemployment rate for persons without a disability decreased by 2.8 percentage points to 5.1 percent in 2021. (See tables A and 1.)
At 10.1 percent in 2021, the unemployment rate for men with a disability was the same as for women with a disability. The unemployment rates for both men and women with a disability decreased from 2020 to 2021; however, both remain above their 2019 rates.
Among persons with a disability, the jobless rates for Blacks (15.1 percent) and Hispanics (13.3 percent) were higher than the rates for Whites (9.3 percent) and Asians (8.5 percent) in 2021. The rates for Whites, Asians, and Hispanics decreased from 2020 to 2021, while the rate for Blacks showed little change. (See table 1.)
Not in the labor force
Persons who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. A large proportion of persons with a disability--about 8 in 10--were not in the labor force in 2021, compared with about 3 in 10 of those with no disability. In part, this reflects the older age profile of persons with a disability; persons age 65 and over are much less likely to participate in the labor force than younger age groups. Across all age groups, however, persons with a disability were more likely to be out of the labor force than those with no disability. (See table 1.)
For persons with and without a disability, the vast majority of those not in the labor force reported that they do not want a job. In 2021, 3 percent of those with a disability and 7 percent of those without a disability wanted a job. Among those who do want a job, a subset are classified as marginally attached to the labor force. These individuals wanted and were available to work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (Persons marginally attached to the labor force include discouraged workers.) Less than 1 percent of persons with a disability and about 2 percent of persons without a disability were marginally attached to the labor force in 2021. (See table 5.)
Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics Technical Note
Table 2. Employed full- and part-time workers by disability status and age, 2021 annual averages
Table 3. Employed persons by disability status, occupation, and sex, 2021 annual averages
Table 5. Persons not in the labor force by disability status, age, and sex, 2021 annual averages
