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The employment–population ratio for people with a disability, at 17.5 percent, edged up in 2015, essentially returning to the 2013 level. The ratio for those with no disability increased to 65.0 percent.
Year | Total, age 16 and over | Men, ages 16 to 64 | Women, ages 16 to 64 | Total, age 65 and over | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
With a disability | With no disability | With a disability | With no disability | With a disability | With no disability | With a disability | With no disability | |
2009 |
19.2% | 64.5% | 31.7% | 75.2% | 27.7% | 66.3% | 6.3% | 20.7% |
2010 |
18.6 | 63.5 | 30.7 | 74.3 | 26.5 | 65.3 | 6.1 | 20.6 |
2011 |
17.8 | 63.6 | 29.2 | 74.9 | 24.9 | 65.0 | 6.4 | 21.4 |
2012 |
17.8 | 63.9 | 29.5 | 75.8 | 24.7 | 65.3 | 6.9 | 21.9 |
2013 |
17.6 | 64.0 | 29.2 | 76.2 | 24.6 | 65.5 | 6.9 | 22.4 |
2014 |
17.1 | 64.6 | 28.1 | 77.3 | 24.0 | 66.2 | 6.8 | 22.5 |
2015 |
17.5 | 65.0 | 29.2 | 77.9 | 24.8 | 66.7 | 6.7 | 23.1 |
The lower employment–population ratio among people with a disability reflects, in part, the older age profile of people with a disability; older workers are less likely to be employed regardless of disability status. However, across all age groups, people with a disability were much less likely to be employed than those with no disability.
The employment–population ratios for men ages 16 to 64—both men with a disability and men with no disability—have been higher than the corresponding ratios for women. Over the 2009–15 period, the employment–population ratio for men ages 16 to 64 with a disability showed no clear trend, averaging approximately 30 percent, while the ratio for women ages 16 to 64 with a disability averaged about 25 percent.
Among people with a disability age 65 and over, the employment–population ratio, at 6.7 percent in 2015, was about unchanged from the prior year. For people without a disability, the ratio increased to 23.1 percent for those age 65 and over.
These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see "Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics — 2015" (HTML) (PDF). The employment–population ratio is the number of employed people divided by the number of people in the civilian noninstitutional population, expressed as a percentage. To learn more about statistics on people with a disability, see Demographics: Disability.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, 17.5 percent of people with a disability employed in 2015 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/17-point-5-percent-of-people-with-a-disability-employed-in-2015.htm (visited October 31, 2024).