There’s been some good news for people with disability in the workplace!
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released its latest tranche of data on disability employment rates – and the unemployment rate for people with disability has dropped to 7.5 per cent, down from 10.3 per cent in 2018.
However, it is still more than twice the rate for people without disability at 3.1 per cent.
It’s important to note the new figure is based on data from 2022 – the most recent unemployment rate in Australia was 4 per cent in June.
In addition, the new data reveals that the labour force participation rate for people with disability has increased to 60.5 per cent, up from 53.4 per cent in 2018.
It compares to the participation rate for people without disability, which sits at 84.9 per cent, compared to 84.1 per cent in 2018.
The data also revealed that:
- 2.7 million people with disability living in households were of working age.
- Of those people, more than half – or 56.1 per cent – were employed, compared to 82.3 per cent of those without disability
- one-third, or 33. 4 per cent, were employed full-time, compared to 57.9 per cent of people without disability.
The good news was tempered, however, by news that participation in the workforce declined against severity of disability – just 37. 2 per cent of people with a “profound or severe limitation” were in the workforce in 2022.
Plus, the unemployment rate for people with a profound or severe limitation was 10.7 per cent. The rate for people with a disability classed by the ABS as moderate was 5 per cent, and for those with a mild limitation was 6.4 per cent.