For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Friday, June 24, 2011 USDL-11-0921
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PERSONS WITH A DISABILITY: LABOR FORCE CHARACTERISTICS -- 2010
The proportion of the population employed in 2010--the employment-population ratio--was
18.6 percent among those with a disability, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
today. The employment-population ratio for persons without a disability was 63.5 percent.
The ratios in 2010 for both persons with and without a disability were lower than those
recorded in 2009. The unemployment rate of persons with a disability was 14.8 percent
in 2010, higher than the rate for those with no disability, which was 9.4 percent.
The 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. The collection of
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.
Highlights from the 2010 data are:
--Persons with a disability were over three times as likely as those with no
disability to be age 65 or over. (See table 1.)
--For each age group, the employment-population ratio was much lower for persons
with a disability than for those with no disability. (See table 1.)
--The unemployment rate for persons with a disability was about the same in 2010
as in 2009. The rate for persons without a disability increased over the year.
(See table A.)
--Nearly one-third of workers with a disability were employed part time, compared
with about one-fifth of those with no disability. (See table 2.)
--Persons with a disability were more likely to be self-employed than those with
no disability. (See table 4.)
Demographic characteristics
Persons with a disability tend to be older than persons with no disability, reflecting
the increased incidence of disability with age. In 2010, 45 percent of persons with a
disability were age 65 and over, compared with 13 percent of those with no disability.
Women were somewhat more likely to have a disability than men, partly reflecting the
greater life expectancy of women. Among the major race and ethnicity groups, the
prevalence of a disability was higher for blacks and whites than for Asians and
Hispanics. (See table 1.)
Employment
In 2010, the employment-population ratio was 18.6 percent for persons with a disability.
Among those with no disability, the ratio was much higher at 63.5 percent. The lower
ratio among persons with a disability is due, in part, to the fact that a large share
of the population of persons with a disability was age 65 and older, and older workers,
in general, are less likely to be employed. However, among each age group, persons with
a disability were much less likely to be employed than those with no disability. (See
table 1.)
In 2010, employment-population ratios for both persons with and without a disability
were lower than in 2009. For both groups, the decline was largest among those age
16 to 64. (See table A.)
Persons with a disability who had completed higher levels of education were more likely
to be employed in 2010 than those with less education. However, at each level of
education, persons with a disability were much less likely to be employed than were
their counterparts with no disability. (Because many people age 16 to 24 are still
completing their education, data on educational attainment are shown for those age 25
and over.) (See table 1.)
Workers with a disability were more likely than those with no disability to work part
time. Among workers with a disability, 32 percent usually worked part time in 2010,
compared with 19 percent of workers without a disability. A slightly larger proportion
of workers with a disability worked part time for economic reasons than those with no
disability (8 and 6 percent, respectively). These individuals were working part time
because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time
job. (See table 2.)
Workers with a disability were slightly more likely than those with no disability to
work in production, transportation, and material moving occupations (15 percent
compared with 12 percent). Those with a disability were less likely to work in
management, professional, and related occupations (31 percent compared with 37 percent).
(See table 3.)
In 2010, 15 percent of workers with a disability were employed in federal, state, and
local government, the same percentage as those with no disability. Seventy-four percent
of workers with a disability were employed as private wage and salary workers, compared
with 78 percent of those with no disability. A larger proportion of workers with a
disability were self-employed than were those with no disability (11 and 7 percent,
respectively). (See table 4.)
Unemployment
The unemployment rate for persons with a disability was 14.8 percent in 2010, well above
the figure of 9.4 percent for those with no 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.) Compared with 2009, the unemployment rate for persons
with a disability was about the same in 2010, while the rate for persons without a
disability increased. (See tables A and 1.)
Among persons with a disability, the jobless rate for men (15.2 percent) was slightly
higher in 2010 than the rate for women (14.3 percent). As is the case among those
without a disability, the unemployment rates in 2010 for those with a disability were
higher among blacks (22.0 percent) and Hispanics (18.4 percent) than among whites (13.6
percent) and Asians (12.0 percent). (See table 1.)
Not in the labor force
Persons who are neither employed nor unemployed are referred to as not in the labor
force. As was the case in 2009, a large proportion of those with a disability (about 8
in 10) were not in the labor force in 2010, compared with about 3 in 10 of those with no
disability. In part, this reflects the fact that many of those with a disability are
age 65 and over. However, for each age group, persons with a disability were more likely
than those with no disability to be out of the labor force. (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. Among those who do want a job, a subset is
classified as marginally attached to the labor force. These individuals were not in the
labor force, wanted and were available for 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. Among persons not in the labor force,
1 percent of those with a disability were marginally attached to the labor force in 2010,
compared with 4 percent of those with no disability. (Persons marginally attached to the
labor force include discouraged workers.) (See table 5.)
