July job numbers raise concerns about long-term employment prospects for Americans with disabilities, according to the National Trends in Disability Employment – Monthly Update (nTIDE) for July, issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD).
Prolonged unemployment may discourage workers, causing them to stop looking for work, the report suggests, according to a media release from Kessler Foundation.
nTIDE COVID Update
According to the recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Jobs Report, the employment-to-population ratio for working-age people with disabilities decreased from 28.4% in June 2020 to 28.1% in July 2020 (down 1.1% or 0.3 percentage points). For working-age people without disabilities, the employment-to-population ratio increased from 67.7% in June 2020 to 68.4% in July 2020 (up 1% or 0.7 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).
“Comparing month-to-month numbers (June 2020 to July 2020), we see a leveling off of the employment-to-population ratio for people with and without disabilities, which may reflect regional resurgences of COVID-19 infections and restrictions of economic activity. This is in contrast to the last several months, where we saw month-to-month improvements,” he added.
— John O’Neill, PhD, director of employment and disability research at Kessler Foundation
The labor force participation rate for working-age people with disabilities decreased from 34.4% in June 2020 to 33.0% in July 2020 (down 4.1% or 1.4 percentage points). For working-age people without disabilities, the labor force participation rate also increased from 76.2% in June 2020 to 76.4% in July 2020 (up 0.3% or 0.2 percentage points).
The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the population that is working, not working and on temporary layoff, or not working and actively looking for work.
“A decrease in the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities raises a red flag. It suggests that workers are losing their jobs permanently after being on furlough, and have stopped looking for work and thus, exited the labor force. With the potential impact of the recent surges in COVID-19 cases, we should be concerned about long-term employment stress for people with disabilities.”
— economist Andrew Houtenville, PhD, research director of the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability
[Source(s): Kessler Foundation, PRWeb]
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