Special Education

U.S. Dept of Labor Releases First-Ever Report on Workers With Disabilities

By Christina A. Samuels — February 06, 2009 1 min read
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The Department of Labor released the first official statistics on the employment status of people with disabilities today. The first set of data covers October 2008 through January 2009; statistics will be updated monthly.

Perhaps not surprisingly, people with disabilities have higher rates of unemployment compared to their non-disabled peers--13.2 percent compared to 8.3 percent.

In November, the Department of Labor also released a survey that measured employer attitudes towards workers with disabilities. That report (pdf) is loaded with interesting information; for example, 33 percent of large companies reported hiring a person with disabilities in the past year, compared to 8 percent of medium sized companies.

Also, public employers are more likely to recruit people with disabilities than their private-sector counterparts. And no more than about 14 percent of companies of any size were aware of the Employer Assistance and Recruiting Network, a service of the Labor Department that assists employers in locating and recruiting qualified workers with disabilities.

Thanks to Disability Scoop for the tip.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the On Special Education blog.