Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, February 23, 2023 		            USDL-23-0351

Technical information:  (202) 691-6378  *  cpsinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/cps 
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  *  PressOffice@bls.gov


                 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, 65.4
percent 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 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 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. (See table 1.)

 --Across all age groups, persons with a disability were much less likely to be employed than
   those with no disability. (See table 1.)

 --The unemployment rate for persons with a disability was about twice as high as the rate for
   persons without a disability. (See table 1.)

 --In 2022, 30 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 2022, persons with a disability accounted for 12 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 2022, 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 2022, 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 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 was
the 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 1.7
percentage 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.
(See tables A and 1.)

In 2022, the employment-population ratio for persons with a disability ages 16 to 64 increased
by 3.4 percentage points to 34.8 percent, while the ratio for persons without a disability
in 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. 
(See table A.)

Persons with a disability were less likely to have completed a bachelor's degree or higher
than were 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 2022, persons with a disability were much less likely to
be employed than their counterparts with no disability. (Educational attainment data are 
presented for those age 25 and over.) (See table 1.)

Workers with a disability were almost twice as likely to be employed part time than were those
with no disability. Among workers with a disability, 30 percent usually worked part time in
2022, 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 for their counterparts
without a disability (4 percent, compared with 2 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 2022, persons with a disability were more likely to work in service occupations than were
those with no disability (19.1 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 (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 were
less likely to work in management, professional, and related occupations than were those 
without a disability (36.3 percent, compared with 43.3 percent). (See table 3.)

A larger share of workers with a disability were self-employed in 2022 than were those with
no disability (9.5 percent versus 6.1 percent). In contrast, a smaller share of workers with
a 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 same
for both persons with a disability and persons without a disability (13.7 percent and 13.4 
percent, respectively). (See table 4.)

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 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 1.6 percentage points to 3.5 percent in 2022. (See tables A and 1.)

In 2022, the unemployment rate for men with a disability (7.8 percent) was little different
than the rate for women with a disability (7.4 percent). The unemployment rates for both
men and women with a disability decreased from 2021 to 2022, by 2.3 percentage points and
2.7 percentage points, respectively. (See table 1.)

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 the
rate for Asians 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--nearly 8 in 10--were not in the labor force in 2022, 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
did not want a job. In 2022, 3 percent of those with a disability and 7 percent of those
without a disability wanted a job. Among those who wanted a job, a subset is 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.) About 1 percent of
persons with a disability and 2 percent of persons without a disability were marginally
attached to the labor force in 2022. (See table 5.)