Disabled worker statistics at a glance
Disabled worker statistics show a labor market with a much lower employment rate, a lower participation rate, and a much higher share of people outside the labor force than the comparable no-disability population.
The 2024 BLS figures make that gap clear in several different ways, from headline rates to age, education, occupation, and work-limiting-condition breakdowns (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024; BLS Disability Supplement July 2024).
Quick take
- In 2024, the employment-population ratio for people with a disability was 22.7 percent, while the figure for people with no disability was 65.5 percent (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
- In 2024, the labor force participation rate for people with a disability was 24.5 percent, compared with 68.1 percent for people with no disability (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
- In 2024, the unemployment rate for people with a disability was 7.5 percent, compared with 3.8 percent for people with no disability (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
- In 2024, 75 percent of people with a disability were not in the labor force, versus 32 percent of people with no disability (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
- In 2024, 7,701 thousand employed workers had a disability, and 25,618 thousand people with a disability were not in the labor force (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
Contents
- Headline labor market rates
- How the disability gap changes by age
- Education and work-limiting conditions
- Occupation and job mix
- People outside the labor force
- What the 2024 numbers emphasize
Headline labor market rates
The most important disabled worker statistics are the standard labor market measures: employment-population ratio, labor force participation rate, and unemployment rate.
Those three measures tell a consistent story in 2024. People with a disability were much less likely to be employed, much less likely to be in the labor force at all, and more likely to be unemployed if they were seeking work (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
| Measure | People with a disability | People with no disability |
|---|---|---|
| Employment-population ratio | 22.7% | 65.5% |
| Labor force participation rate | 24.5% | 68.1% |
| Unemployment rate | 7.5% | 3.8% |
| Not in the labor force | 75% | 32% |
| Wanted a job while not in the labor force | about 3% | about 6% |
| Marginally attached to the labor force | about 1% | about 2% |
The employment-population ratio is the clearest single headline. At 22.7 percent, it shows that fewer than one in four people with a disability were employed in 2024 (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
The participation rate is the broader measure of labor force attachment. At 24.5 percent, it indicates that the vast majority of people with a disability were not actively in the labor force in that year (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
The unemployment rate matters too, but it needs context. A 7.5 percent unemployment rate is high relative to 3.8 percent for people with no disability, yet the even larger difference is in whether people are working or participating at all (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
The main pattern is not only unemployment. It is the much smaller share of people with a disability who are attached to the labor market in the first place (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
The gap is larger in participation than in unemployment
A useful way to read the 2024 numbers is to separate access from search outcomes.
- Access: 24.5 percent labor force participation for people with a disability versus 68.1 percent for people with no disability (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
- Search outcome: 7.5 percent unemployment for people with a disability versus 3.8 percent for people with no disability (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
That comparison shows a much deeper divide in labor force attachment than in the unemployment rate alone.
How the disability gap changes by age
Age changes the picture, but it does not remove the gap. The 2024 BLS figures show that the disability employment and participation rates remain lower across age groups, even though the exact values differ by age band (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024; BLS Disability Supplement July 2024).
Core age pattern
| Age group | Employment-population ratio | Labor force participation rate | Unemployment rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disability, age 16 to 64 | 37.4% | 40.7% | 8.1% |
| Disability, age 65 and over | 8.1% | 8.5% | 4.6% |
These values show two important points.
First, disabled worker statistics are strongly age-dependent. People with a disability age 16 to 64 had a 37.4 percent employment-population ratio and a 40.7 percent labor force participation rate, both much higher than the rates for people with a disability age 65 and over (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
Second, the older group still had lower participation and employment, even though its unemployment rate was lower than the working-age group. That lower unemployment rate should not be read as a stronger labor market outcome on its own, because fewer older adults were in the labor force to begin with (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
Work-limiting conditions by age
The July 2024 disability supplement adds another layer by looking at people with a disability and a work-limiting condition.
| Age group | With disability and work-limiting condition | No disability and work-limiting condition |
|---|---|---|
| 16 to 24 labor force participation rate | 21.7% | 48.9% |
| 25 to 34 labor force participation rate | 35.1% | 58.7% |
| 35 to 44 labor force participation rate | 29.3% | 54.5% |
| 45 to 54 labor force participation rate | 24.9% | 48.3% |
| 55 to 64 employment-population ratio | 13.9% | 34.9% |
| 65 to 75 labor force participation rate | 8.7% | 13.9% |
The pattern is consistent across these age groups. People with a disability and a work-limiting condition had lower labor force participation or employment-population ratios than people without a disability and a work-limiting condition in each age band listed (BLS Disability Supplement July 2024).
Education and work-limiting conditions
Education is one of the clearest differentiators in the July 2024 supplement. The labor force participation rate rises as educational attainment rises, both for people with a disability and for people with no disability and a work-limiting condition (BLS Disability Supplement July 2024).
Participation by education
| Education level | Disability and work-limiting condition labor force participation rate |
|---|---|
| Less than high school diploma | 9.7% |
| High school graduate, no college | 13.3% |
| Some college or associate degree | 20.0% |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher | 29.8% |
Those four rows show a stepwise climb. The highest educational group had the strongest labor force participation rate among the disability and work-limiting-condition categories listed, at 29.8 percent (BLS Disability Supplement July 2024).
The same educational gradient appears for people with no disability and a work-limiting condition, where the figures rise from 48.9 percent for ages 16 to 24 to 58.7 percent for ages 25 to 34 and remain above 30 percent through the older working-age groups listed (BLS Disability Supplement July 2024).
What the education data suggests
The education figures do not erase the gap, but they do show that higher educational attainment is associated with higher labor force participation within the disability-and-work-limiting-condition population.
That matters for how you read the overall statistics.
- Low participation is not uniform across all educational groups.
- Higher education corresponds with higher participation, even though the levels remain below those of the no-disability comparison group listed in the supplement (BLS Disability Supplement July 2024).
- The data are best read as layered differences, not a single outcome explained by one variable.
Occupation and job mix
The 2024 BLS labor force characteristics release also breaks out the occupations and industries of employed people with a disability. That adds an important practical angle: what kinds of jobs disabled workers were holding when they were employed (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
Occupation distribution
| Occupation or industry group | Share of employed people with a disability |
|---|---|
| Management, professional, and related occupations | 37.9% |
| Sales and office occupations | 20.8% |
| Service occupations | 19.0% |
| Production, transportation, and material moving occupations | 14.2% |
| Retail trade | 13.1% |
| Education and health services | 21.8% |
The largest occupation group listed was management, professional, and related occupations at 37.9 percent (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
Service occupations and sales and office occupations also represented large shares, at 19.0 percent and 20.8 percent respectively (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
Employment form
The release also reports two employment-form measures that help round out the picture.
- 14.1 percent of employed people with a disability were government wage and salary workers (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
- 9.2 percent of employed people with a disability were self-employed workers, unincorporated (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
These shares are useful because they show that disabled workers were spread across multiple employment arrangements, not concentrated in a single form of work (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
People outside the labor force
One of the most important disabled worker statistics in 2024 is how many people with a disability were not in the labor force.
The answer is 25,618 thousand people (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
That figure matters because it is far larger than the number of employed people with a disability, which was 7,701 thousand in the same release (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
What “not in the labor force” looks like
The 2024 BLS release separates people outside the labor force into a few further categories.
- 798 thousand people with a disability who were not in the labor force currently wanted a job (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
- 203 thousand people with a disability who were not in the labor force were marginally attached to the labor force (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
- 45 thousand people with a disability who were not in the labor force were discouraged workers (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
Those numbers are small relative to the total outside-labor-force population, but they show that not being in the labor force does not mean the same thing for everyone (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
Why this category matters
If you focus only on employment, you miss the much larger pool of people with a disability who are disconnected from the labor market entirely.
The 2024 numbers show three layers at once.
- Some people with a disability were employed.
- A smaller group was unemployed and actively looking.
- A much larger group was not in the labor force at all (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
That layered structure is the core reason disabled worker statistics need more than one headline metric.
What the 2024 numbers emphasize
The most useful way to read the 2024 BLS data is to compare the disability and no-disability groups across the same measures.
The strongest pattern is not subtle. People with a disability had a far lower employment-population ratio, a far lower labor force participation rate, and a much higher share outside the labor force than people with no disability (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024).
At the same time, the data also show that the disability workforce is not a single block.
- Age changes labor market attachment.
- Education is linked to higher participation.
- Occupations are distributed across multiple job categories.
- A meaningful subset of people outside the labor force still wanted a job or was marginally attached (BLS Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2024; BLS Disability Supplement July 2024).
Those details are what make disabled worker statistics useful. They turn a broad employment gap into a more specific picture of where the gap is largest, where it narrows, and where the labor market still includes substantial participation from people with a disability.