BRIEF REPORT
Changes in the Employment Status of People With and Without Disabilities in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2021.03.019Get rights and content

Highlights

  • From February 2020 to April 2020:

    • The percentage employed drop from 31.1% to 26.4% for people with disabilities and from 74.8% to 63.2% for people without disabilities.

    • The percentage unemployed rose from 3.0% to 6.5% for persons with disabilities and 2.9% to 10.5% for people without disabilities.

    • An increase in the percentage not in the labor force was not detected for people with disabilities, while for people without disabilities it increased from 22.3% to 26.3%.

    • In the succeeding months, percentage employed increased for both groups.

Abstract

Objective

Using data from the monthly Current Population Survey, this paper provides monthly employment and unemployment statistics for people with and without disabilities in the United States before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic to date (January 2021).

Design

Cross-sectional analysis of the Current Population Survey.

Setting

The United States.

Participants

People with and without disabilities ages 16-64 years.

Intervention

N/A

Main Outcome Measures

Percentage employed, percentage unemployed, percentage not in labor force, percentage on temporary layoff, percentage looking for work.

Results

Estimates show that, like workers without disabilities, workers with disabilities experienced increases in unemployment at the beginning of the pandemic but continued to remain engaged in the labor force. Our analysis finds that employment rates dropped from 74.8% to 63.2% for those without disabilities and from 31.1% to 26.4% for those with disabilities between February 2020 and April 2020 but gradually improved in the succeeding months.

Conclusions

As the pandemic continued, the percentage of unemployed people with and without disabilities on temporary layoff decreased and those looking for work increased.

Keywords

COVID-19
Disability
Employment
Rehabilitation
Unemployment

List of abbreviations

BLS
Bureau of Labor Statistics
COVID-19
coronavirus disease 2019
CPS
Current Population Survey
US
United States

Cited by (0)

Supported by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Employment Policy and Measurement at the University of New Hampshire, which is funded by the National Institute for Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), in the Administration for Community Living, at the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) under grant no. 9ORT5037-02-00. The contents do not necessarily represent the policy of DHHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government (EDGAR, 75.620 [b]).

Disclosures: none.

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