Workers on the margins of the labor pool often get a second look as the job market heats up. After years of steady job creation, are we now at that point in the business cycle?
Even amid the recent uptick, the share of disabled workers has still seen a long-term decline
article by ANNA LOUIE SUSSMAN, for The Wall Street Journal | June 22, 2016
A new report from the Labor Department suggests the answer could be “yes.” For working-age persons with disabilities, rates of employment and labor-force participation increased between 2014 and 2015, following steady declines in both measures in the period following the recession, through roughly the end of 2014. (The report’s figures are not adjusted for seasonality.)
For example, men aged 16-64 with a disability saw their employment-to-population ratio, or the share of the overall population that is employed, fall from an average of 31.7% in 2009 to 28.1% in 2014. In May it hit 32%, up sharply from 30.1% in May 2015. For their non-disabled peers, the same measure hit bottom in 2010 and has risen each year since.
In one sense, the sluggish recovery of persons with disabilities so long after the recession ended reflects similar experiences among other workers on the fringes of the labor market. Workers who are 25 years and older and have less than a high school diploma, for instance, saw their labor-force participation start rising again only in 2015.
But the upturn in 2015 follows a longer-term trend of falling employment and labor-force participation among people with disabilities, said Richard Burkhauser, an economist at Cornell University and the University of Texas at Austin. A separate 2015 report from the nonpartisan think tank the American Institutes for Research found that labor force participation and employment rates among people with disabilities have steadily fallen since 2001, from 25% to less than 17% among workers aged 21-65. Mr. Burkhauser attributes that decline to a “tremendous increase” in the share of workers with disabilities who receive disability insurance, which rose to 9 million people as of 2014, up from 5.3 million people in 2001. That discourages them from working, he said, with people using the disability insurance program as “a long-term unemployment program.”
Even if 2015 marks the beginning of a turnaround, persons with a disability still work at rates vastly lower than their non-disabled counterparts, who are about 3.7 times more likely to be employed, the new Labor Department report said. In 2015, 17.5% of persons with a disability 16 and over were employed, while 65% of the non-disabled population was employed. However, the population with disabilities is generally an older group, with nearly half –47%– aged 65 or over, three times the rate of those without disabilities. And they are less likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Disability experts caution that the employment experiences differ widely depending on the type of disability. For example, people with cognitive disabilities were employed at less than half the rate of those with vision or hearing disabilities. AIR researcher Michelle Yin, who co-authored the 2015 report, said that policies intended to facilitate hiring disabled workers needed to factor in their broad range of needs and experiences.
“In an uncertain job market, policies that do not address the needs and opportunities of people with specific types of disabilities will not be sustainable, as these individuals weigh guaranteed benefits against an uncertain future,” she said.
A new report from the Labor Department suggests the answer could be “yes.” For working-age persons with disabilities, rates of employment and labor-force participation increased between 2014 and 2015, following steady declines in both measures in the period following the recession, through roughly the end of 2014. (The report’s figures are not adjusted for seasonality.)
For example, men aged 16-64 with a disability saw their employment-to-population ratio, or the share of the overall population that is employed, fall from an average of 31.7% in 2009 to 28.1% in 2014. In May it hit 32%, up sharply from 30.1% in May 2015. For their non-disabled peers, the same measure hit bottom in 2010 and has risen each year since.
In one sense, the sluggish recovery of persons with disabilities so long after the recession ended reflects similar experiences among other workers on the fringes of the labor market. Workers who are 25 years and older and have less than a high school diploma, for instance, saw their labor-force participation start rising again only in 2015.
But the upturn in 2015 follows a longer-term trend of falling employment and labor-force participation among people with disabilities, said Richard Burkhauser, an economist at Cornell University and the University of Texas at Austin. A separate 2015 report from the nonpartisan think tank the American Institutes for Research found that labor force participation and employment rates among people with disabilities have steadily fallen since 2001, from 25% to less than 17% among workers aged 21-65. Mr. Burkhauser attributes that decline to a “tremendous increase” in the share of workers with disabilities who receive disability insurance, which rose to 9 million people as of 2014, up from 5.3 million people in 2001. That discourages them from working, he said, with people using the disability insurance program as “a long-term unemployment program.”
Even if 2015 marks the beginning of a turnaround, persons with a disability still work at rates vastly lower than their non-disabled counterparts, who are about 3.7 times more likely to be employed, the new Labor Department report said. In 2015, 17.5% of persons with a disability 16 and over were employed, while 65% of the non-disabled population was employed. However, the population with disabilities is generally an older group, with nearly half –47%– aged 65 or over, three times the rate of those without disabilities. And they are less likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Disability experts caution that the employment experiences differ widely depending on the type of disability. For example, people with cognitive disabilities were employed at less than half the rate of those with vision or hearing disabilities. AIR researcher Michelle Yin, who co-authored the 2015 report, said that policies intended to facilitate hiring disabled workers needed to factor in their broad range of needs and experiences.
“In an uncertain job market, policies that do not address the needs and opportunities of people with specific types of disabilities will not be sustainable, as these individuals weigh guaranteed benefits against an uncertain future,” she said.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/06/22/workers-with-disabilities-see-long-delayed-improvement-as-job-market-tightens/
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