Americans affected by disabilities have made employment gains for a fourth consecutive month, according to the National Trends in Disability Employment – Monthly Update (nTIDE), issued by Kessler Foundation and University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD).
The West Orange, NJ-headquartered Kessler Foundation reports that in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Jobs Report released Friday, February 6, the labor force participation rate ticked up to 30.8%, an increase over the 28.3% recorded in January 2014. The figures are associated with individuals of working age who are affected by disabilities.
In contrast, the labor force participation rate for people without disabilities made less dramatic improvement. Figures for that group show a much smaller increase from 75.6% in January 2014 to 75.7% in January 2015. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the population that is working or actively looking for work.
“More Americans with disabilities are participating in paid work,” says John O’Neill, PhD, director of employment and disability research at Kessler Foundation. “An increase in employment for people with disabilities for the fourth month in a row is quite a turnaround from what we have been seeing since we started releasing the nTIDE report in March 2013.”
The foundation also reports that the employment-to-population ratio increased from 24.1% in January 2014 to 26.7% in January 2015 (up 10.8%; 2.6 percentage points) for working-age people with disabilities. In contrast, the foundation states, the employment-to-population ratio increased slightly from 70.4% in January 2014 to 71.2% in January 2015 (up 1.1%; 0.8 percentage points) for people without disabilities.
In comparison to January 2014, the foundation reports, 460,000 more Americans with disabilities are in the workforce.
“Each month that we see positive news strengthens the evidence that we are seeing a reversal in the downward employment trend that the population with disabilities has experienced since the Great Recession. It will take quite a bit more time to determine whether there is a real change in the downward trend that we have seen for decades,” said Andrew J. Houtenville, PhD, associate professor of economics and research director at UNH-IOD.
A media release from The Kessler Foundation states that private funders are supporting efforts that expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The release notes that by the end of 2014 Kessler Foundation awarded $2.1 million in grants to organizations across the United States that were earmarked to fund several expansion projects. One such project, ServiceSource of Florida’s “Warrior Bridge Brain Injury Demonstration Project,” aims to increase the integration, independence and employment outcomes for individuals with brain injury, including veterans, through a clubhouse model.
Foundation funding also reportedly supports “21 and Able” at United Way of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania. This program was created to place embedded professionals in corporations to aid the hiring of young adults in the transition from school to the workplace.
In January 2015, among workers ages 16-64, the 4,124,000 workers with disabilities represented 3% of the total 138,317 workers in the U.S, according to the foundation’s media release.
[Source: The Kessler Foundation]