Tight Labor Market Benefits People with Disabilities, Are You Expanding your Applicant Pool?

Disabled persons are entering the workforce as overall unemployment rates drop and companies consider an expanded pool of potential job applicants for entry-level and essential positions.Persons with disabilities have long been sidelined and unable to find employment, due in part to stigma and from an inability to perform tasks as quickly or accurately as their able-bodied peers. That trend has steadily changed since 2011, marking a significant change in the makeup of the American labor force.A tight economy with an extremely low unemployment rate is benefiting all workers, but especially workers with disabilities, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The unemployment rate in the U.S. is currently 3.9 percent, the lowest reported rate since 1969, according to WSJ. Those unemployment numbers have allowed a large swath of disabled persons to seek and find work. The monthly rate of unemployment for disabled persons fell nearly 5 percent between 2014 and 2018, according to data from the Labor Department. Unemployment rates for both disabled and non-disabled persons have dropped significantly since 2011, tracking similarly, the data reveal.