More men with disabilities enter job market

For men with disabilities, the unemployment rate rose to 13.7 percent, from 13.1 percent, but the labor force participation rate climbed to 35 percent, from 33.4 percent and the employment-to-population ratio increased to 30.2 percent, from 29.1 percent.

For women with disabilities, all indicators got worse.

For the women, the labor force participation rate fell to 28.7 percent, from 29.1 percent; the employment-to-population ratio fell to 24.5 percent, from 24.9 percent; and the unemployment rate rose to 14.8 percent, from 14.5 percent.

John O’Neill, a disability researcher at the Kessler Foundation, said he thinks the government figures show that the employment picture for people with disabilities is improving.

The fact that the labor force participation rate rose as the participation rate for all adults fell is “positive evidence that the labor market is starting to turn around for people with disabilities,” O’Neill said in a commentary on the data.

Analysts at Allsup, a company that helps people apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), said they think the high unemployment rate for people with disabilities shows that the outlook for job hunters with disabilities is still grim.

Because of the federal government’s budget problems, SSDI program managers have been closing some field offices and reducing hours at others, and that could make getting through the SSDI application process even more difficult than it has been in the past, the analysts said. 

See also:

• Disabled more likely to work, look for work
• The early retirement headline you’re not seeing
• More People with Disabilities Find Jobs