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Employment of workers with a disability in 2017

June 27, 2018

In 2017, 18.7 percent of people age 16 and older with a disability were employed. That compares with 65.7 percent of people without a disability. More workers with a disability worked in education and health services (21.6 percent) than in any other industry. Education and health services employed 33.8 percent of women with a disability, compared with 11.5 percent of men with a disability.

Percent distribution of employed persons by disability status and industry, 2017
Industry Total with a disability Total with no disability Men with a disability Men with no disability Women with a disability Women with no disability

Total employed

100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction

0.3 0.5 0.5 0.8 0.0 0.1

Information

1.9 1.9 2.0 2.2 1.8 1.6

Wholesale trade

1.9 2.4 2.6 3.1 1.0 1.5

Agriculture and related industries

3.1 1.5 4.5 2.2 1.3 0.8

Public administration

4.7 4.6 4.6 4.8 4.9 4.4

Transportation and utilities

5.2 5.3 7.0 7.6 3.0 2.7

Financial activities

5.3 6.9 4.9 6.1 5.8 7.8

Construction

5.9 7.0 9.8 12.0 1.1 1.4

Other services

6.2 4.8 5.6 4.4 6.9 5.3

Leisure and hospitality

9.0 9.3 8.0 8.6 10.3 10.1

Manufacturing

10.2 10.0 13.3 13.3 6.6 6.3

Professional and business services

12.0 12.3 13.2 13.4 10.5 11.1

Retail trade

12.7 10.8 12.5 10.6 12.9 11.1

Education and health services

21.6 22.5 11.5 10.8 33.8 35.8

Retail trade employed 12.7 percent of workers with a disability, compared with 10.8 percent of workers with no disability. Agriculture and related industries employed 3.1 percent of workers with a disability, which was twice the percentage of workers with no disability.

Employed people with a disability were nearly equally likely to work in manufacturing (10.2 percent) and in leisure and hospitality (9.0 percent) as people without a disability (10.0 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively).

These data are from the Current Population Survey. See "Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics — 2017" for more information. For more statistics on people with a disability, see Demographics: Disability.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employment of workers with a disability in 2017 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/employment-of-workers-with-a-disability-in-2017.htm (visited March 28, 2024).

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