PERSONS WITH A DISABILITY: LABOR FORCE CHARACTERISTICS -- 2022
In 2022, 21.3 percent of persons with a disability were employed, up from 19.1 percent in 2021,the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. For persons without a disability, 65.4percent were employed in 2022, up from 63.7 percent in the prior year. The unemployment rates for persons with a disability (7.6 percent) and persons without a disability (3.5 percent) both declined in 2022.
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 andunemployment 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 2022 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.
--Across all age groups, persons with a disability were much less likely to be employed than those with no disability.
--The unemployment rate for persons with a disability was about twice as high as the rate for persons without a disability.
--In 2022, 30 percent of workers with a disability were employed part time, compared with 16 percent for those with no disability.
--Employed persons with a disability were more likely to be self-employed than those with no disability.
Demographic characteristics
In 2022, persons with a disability accounted for 12 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalpopulation. Persons with a disability tend to be older than persons with no disability, reflecting the increased incidence of disability with age. In 2022, half of persons with adisability 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 greaterlife expectancy of women. In 2022, the prevalence of disability continued to be higher forBlacks and Whites than for Hispanics and Asians.
Employment
The employment-population ratio--that is, the percent of the population that is employed--forpersons with a disability increased by 2.2 percentage points from the prior year to 21.3 percent in 2022. The employment-population ratio for persons with a disability in 2022 wasthe highest on record since comparable data were first published in 2008. The employment-population ratio for persons without a disability, at 65.4 percent in 2022, increased by 1.7percentage points over the year. The lower ratio among persons with a disability reflects,in part, the older age profile of persons with a disability; older individuals 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.
In 2022, the employment-population ratio for persons with a disability ages 16 to 64 increasedby 3.4 percentage points to 34.8 percent, while the ratio for persons without a disabilityin the same age group increased by 1.9 percentage points to 74.4 percent. The ratios for persons age 65 and over with a disability (7.7 percent) and without a disability (23.0 percent)increased by 0.8 percentage point and 0.7 percentage point, respectively, over the year.
Persons with a disability were less likely to have completed a bachelor's degree or higherthan were those with no disability. Among both groups, those who had attained higher levelsof education were more likely to be employed than those who had attained less education.Across all levels of education in 2022, persons with a disability were much less likely tobe employed than their counterparts with no disability. (Educational attainment data are presented for those age 25 and over.)
Workers with a disability were almost twice as likely to be employed part time than were thosewith no disability. Among workers with a disability, 30 percent usually worked part time in2022, compared with 16 percent of those without a disability. The proportion of workers witha disability who worked part time for economic reasons was higher than for their counterpartswithout a disability (4 percent, compared with 2 percent). These individuals were workingpart time because their hours had been reduced or because they were not able to find a full-time job.
In 2022, persons with a disability were more likely to work in service occupations than werethose with no disability (19.1 percent, compared with 15.9 percent). Workers with a disabilitywere also more likely than those with no disability to work in production, transportation,and material moving occupations (15.3 percent, compared with 12.6 percent), and sales and office occupations (20.5 percent, compared with 19.2 percent). Persons with a disability wereless likely to work in management, professional, and related occupations than were those without a disability (36.3 percent, compared with 43.3 percent).
A larger share of workers with a disability were self-employed in 2022 than were those withno disability (9.5 percent versus 6.1 percent). In contrast, a smaller share of workers witha disability were private wage and salary workers (76.7 percent) than were those without a disability (80.5 percent). The proportion of persons employed in government was about the samefor both persons with a disability and persons without a disability (13.7 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively).
Unemployment
The unemployment rate for persons with a disability, at 7.6 percent in 2022, decreased by 2.5 percentage points from the previous year. The jobless rate for those with a disabilitywas about twice as high as the rate for those without a disability. (Unemployed personsare 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 1.6 percentage points to 3.5 percent in 2022.
In 2022, the unemployment rate for men with a disability (7.8 percent) was little differentthan the rate for women with a disability (7.4 percent). The unemployment rates for bothmen and women with a disability decreased from 2021 to 2022, by 2.3 percentage points and2.7 percentage points, respectively.
Among persons with a disability, the jobless rates for Blacks (12.3 percent) and Hispanics(9.6 percent) were higher than the rates for Whites (6.6 percent) and Asians (6.8 percent)in 2022. The rates for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics decreased from 2021 to 2022, while therate for Asians showed little change.
Not in the labor force
Persons who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. A large proportionof persons with a disability--nearly 8 in 10--were not in the labor force in 2022, comparedwith about 3 in 10 of those with no disability. In part, this reflects the older age profileof persons with a disability; persons age 65 and over are much less likely to participatein the labor force than younger age groups. Across all age groups, however, persons with adisability were more likely to be out of the labor force than those with no disability.
For persons with and without a disability, the vast majority of those not in the labor forcedid not want a job. In 2022, 3 percent of those with a disability and 7 percent of thosewithout a disability wanted a job. Among those who wanted a job, a subset is classified asmarginally attached to the labor force. These individuals wanted and were available to workand had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployedbecause they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (Persons marginally attached to the labor force include discouraged workers.) About 1 percent ofpersons with a disability and 2 percent of persons without a disability were marginallyattached to the labor force in 2022
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