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Unemployment rate of people with a disability 10.5 percent in 2016

June 26, 2017

The unemployment rate for people with a disability was 10.5 percent in 2016. The rate was little changed for the year but down from 15.0 percent in 2011. The unemployment rate for men with a disability was 10.1 percent in 2016, similar to the unemployment rate for women with a disability (11.0 percent). The unemployment rate for people without a disability was 4.6 percent in 2016, a decline of 0.5 percentage point from 2015.

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Unemployment rate by disability status and sex, 2009–16
Year	Persons with a disability			Persons without a disability
Year	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2009	14.5%	15.1%	13.8%	9.0%	10.1%	7.8%
2010	14.8	15.2	14.3	9.4	10.3	8.4
2011	15.0	15.3	14.7	8.7	9.1	8.2
2012	13.4	13.2	13.7	7.9	8.0	7.7
2013	13.2	13.0	13.5	7.1	7.4	6.8
2014	12.5	12.5	12.5	5.9	6.0	5.8
2015	10.7	10.6	10.8	5.1	5.2	5.0
2016	10.5	10.1	11.0	4.6	4.7	4.6

In 2016, 20.0 percent of people with a disability participated in the labor force and 68.5 percent of people without a disability participated in the labor force. The labor force participation rate for men with a disability increased from 22.8 percent in 2015 to 23.7 percent in 2016. The labor force participation rate for women with a disability, 16.9 percent in 2016, changed little over the year.

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Labor force participation rates of persons with a disability by sex, 2009–16
Year	Total	Men	Women
2009	22.4%	26.4%	19.1%
2010	21.8	25.9	18.4
2011	20.9	24.9	17.4
2012	20.6	24.7	17.1
2013	20.3	24.0	17.1
2014	19.5	22.9	16.6
2015	19.5	22.8	16.7
2016	20.0	23.7	16.9

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Unemployment rates are calculated for the civilian noninstitutional population aged 16 and over. For more information, see "Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics — 2016" (HTML) (PDF). To learn more, see our page of data on people with a disability.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Unemployment rate of people with a disability 10.5 percent in 2016 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/unemployment-rate-of-people-with-a-disability-10-point-5-percent-in-2016.htm (visited March 05, 2026).

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