Kessler Foundation and the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Developmentare proud to launch a new series of reports designed to highlight researchfindings of national interest. The series is focused on emerging trends,promising 'transitions to work' models, as well as new and innovativepractices and systems that are working to significantly improve theemployment and economic independence of individuals with disabilities.

• Asset Development Brief
• Social Enterprises Brief

The Disproportionate Impact of the Great Recession on Workers with Disabilities

Disability measures recently introduced into the U.S. Current PopulationSurvey offer an unprecedented opportunity to track, month by month, thelabor force status of working-age adults with disabilities in the midst of amajor economic downturn. Over a one-year period, the number of employedworkers with disabilities declined at a rate more than three times that ofworkers without disabilities, and the unemployment rate rose dramatically tolevels far exceeding that of other workers. A basic synopsis of this article is, "Between October 2008 and October 2009,the number of employed working-age adults with disabilities declined by 13.6percent, more than three times the 4.2 percent drop among working-age adultswithout disabilities.This article offers clear evidence of the disproportionate effect of theeconomic downturn on workers with disabilities compared to theircounterparts without disabilities. Does this evidence also support thehypothesis expressed in the introduction, that people with disabilities are"the first to be laid off in a recession and the last to be hired whenconditions improve"? As for the "first to be laid off" part, probably so:Workers with disabilities were losing their jobs in large numbers, and at afar higher rate than they were finding new jobs, even early on in therecessionary period. And a comparison with other disadvantaged populations(Figure 5) shows that the 13.6 percent one-year decline in the workforce forworkers with disabilities was far larger than that for African Americanworkers (6.0percent) or Latinos (3.2 percent)."·

• Great Recession