"Trends in Disability Employment" National Update for February 2017

nTIDE February Jobs Report:
Americans with Disabilities Continue to Contribute to Job Gains

Kessler Foundation & University of New Hampshire release nTIDE Report – Monthly Update

DURHAM, NH – Employment continues to increase for Americans with disabilities, building on the solid start to the new year, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment – Monthly Update (nTIDE), issued by Kessler Foundation and University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD). Achieving positive employment outcomes is especially challenging for high schools that serve young adults with moderate to severe disabilities.  Promising approaches are based on intervening early, coordinating educational and vocational resources, and cultivating local employers.

The February numbers indicate that people with and without disabilities are contributing to U.S. job gains. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Jobs Report released Friday, March 10, the employment-to-population ratio for working-age people with disabilities increased from 26.0 percent in February 2016 to 28.1 percent in February 2017 (up 8.1 percent; 2.1 percentage points). For working-age people without disabilities, the employment-to-population ratio increased slightly from 72.3 percent in February 2016 to 72.8 percent in February 2017 (up 0.7 percent; 0.5 percentage points). The employment-to-population ratio, a key indicator, reflects the percentage of people who are working relative to the total population (the number of people working divided by the number of people in the total population multiplied by 100).

“The improvement in the proportion of people with disabilities working continues for the eleventh consecutive month,” according to John O’Neill, PhD, director of employment and disability research at Kessler Foundation. “This is the longest run of positive news since we began reporting the employment situation of people with disabilities in 2013,” he added.

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SOURCE: Trends in Disability Employment - National Update is funded, in part, by a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) under grant number 90RT5022-02-01,and Kessler Foundation