Historic highs in employment for people with disabilities: An unexpected pandemic outcome

In 2022, we explored the lessons learned during prolonged pandemic lockdowns and how spinal cord injury professionals were adapting to radical and precipitous changes that affected every aspect of society.¹ Creative solutions that minimized personal interactions were rapidly adopted, forever altering our perspectives on the delivery of clinical care and the conduction of research. While much attention focused on the risks of COVID-19 infection and the social, emotional, and psychological consequences of lockdowns and mandatory isolation, in the U.S. many people with disabilities realized newfound opportunities as employers faced widespread labor shortages.

Employment research conducted by U.S. agencies and organizations has documented job gains far exceeding historic highs for people with disabilities^2–4 who entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers as the effects of widespread lockdowns subsided. By remaining engaged in the labor market during the Great Resignation, they stayed on the path to historic gains, surpassing not only their pre-pandemic employment levels, but their previous highs prior to the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

This contrasts with the lackluster recovery among their counterparts without disabilities, who have yet to reach their pre-pandemic levels of employment.⁵ Moreover, the initiation of anti-inflationary measures aimed at cooling the economy and subsequently, the job market, has yet to blunt the surge in gains for jobseekers with disabilities, who continued to outperform people without disabilities as of early 2023.⁵

Allen Heinemann, PhD, director of the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago referred to the gains by people with disabilities as “one of those unexpected but very beneficial consequences. The pandemic helped employers realize that workers can be effective in remote settings and meet productivity expectations.⁶”

Clues to some factors underlying these successes were revealed by a recent survey comparing the workplace practices of 2022 with a similar survey conducted in 2017.^7,8 The five-year interval between surveys spans pre-pandemic, pandemic restrictions, and pandemic recovery, capturing changes in the ways employers recruit, hire, train, accommodate, and retain people with disabilities, as well as differences in the attitudes and commitment of supervisors and upper management.

Among the notable findings, by 2022 the use of flexible work arrangements, including remote work, flexible hours, and job sharing, had more than doubled, benefiting people with disabilities striving to work.^9–11 The majority of supervisors predicted the ongoing use of remote work and flexible work hours. Supervisors reported twice as many employers had central accommodation funds in 2022, a resource supervisors view as important to the success of employees with disabilities. Also, more companies were partnering with disability organizations to recruit qualified candidates and seeking outside assistance for onboarding workers with disabilities. Also, the survey revealed that more companies had instituted educational initiatives on disability issues and cultural competence and reached out for support in providing accommodations.⁶

Despite their impressive gains, the labor-force-participation rate for people with disabilities is half that of people without disabilities, raising questions about whether these gains will be sustained in the face of new economic challenges. John O’Neill, PhD, director of the Center for Employment and Disability Research at Kessler Foundation, anticipates that employment research will help identify the causes and effects underlying the upward trend. “Despite recent gains, people with disabilities still have a long way to go to achieve parity in the labor market. Further research will provide the direction needed for stakeholders, including advocates, employers, and vocational rehabilitation counselors, to help maintain their forward momentum.”

Just as lessons learned from the pandemic may foster greater engagement of underserved populations in care and research,¹ the transformation of the American workplace may result in lasting engagement of people with disabilities.⁶