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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Current Population Survey > Home

People with a disability

Here you will find labor force, employment, and unemployment statistics for people with a disability. Since June 2008, the Current Population Survey (CPS) has included questions designed to identify people with a disability, allowing for a better understanding of their labor market conditions. The CPS covers the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and older.

In addition to its regular survey questions, the CPS periodically fields a series of supplemental questions that have explored topics such as work-limiting health conditions or difficulties, workplace accommodations, barriers to employment, prior work experience, career and financial assistance, and other topics relevant to people with a disability.

Explore our data

Read the latest Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics news release (annual)
- Find archived news releases in HTML and PDF format
Explore additional press releases concerning people with a disability (occasional):

Find monthly data on people with a disability from the Employment Situation news release (monthly)
- Table A-6. Employment status of the civilian population by sex, age, and disability status, not seasonally adjusted for the latest data
- Select series from table A-6 to retrieve historical data

Looking for additional analysis?

For those seeking more in-depth insights, this section provides additional analysis and resources on data related to people with a disability.

Find data visualizations in the TED: The Economics Daily for people with a disability
Search our library of research by CPS staff for people with a disability

Understanding these data

In June 2008, six questions were added to the Current Population Survey (CPS) to identify people with a disability in the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and older. The addition of these questions, which was made possible through funding from the U.S Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). The addition of these questions allowed BLS to begin producing and publishing monthly labor force data from the CPS for people with a disability.

What you need to know

This archive of reports and publications traces the development of survey methodologies to measure labor force outcomes for people with a disability, including the testing and evaluation of disability questions in the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the American Community Survey (ACS).

The development of questions on disability for the Current Population Survey (April 2014) (HTML) (PDF)
Discussion and presentation of the disability test results from the Current Population Survey (August 2006) - testing disability questions in the February 2006 CPS (Abstract) (PDF)
Designing questions to identify people with disabilities in labor force surveys (August 2005) - early development work on disability questions for the CPS (Abstract) (PDF)

Questions about these data?

See if we have answered them in these Frequently Asked Questions about people with a disability.