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.
... 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.
- Across all age groups, persons with a disability were much less likely to be employed than those with no disability.
- The unemployment rate for persons with a disability was about twice as high as the rate for persons without a disability. (
- In 2022, 30 percent of workers with a disability were employed part time, compared with 16 percent for those with no disability.
- Employed persons with a disability were more likely to be self-employed than those with no disability
...
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.
