There have been calls for employees to reconsider hiring practices as unemployment rates of people with a disability reaches more than double the unemployment rates of people without a disability.
The data from the Australian Institute and Welfare (AIHW) shows that in 2012, the unemployment gap was 4 per cent, and in 2022, 10 years later, it was measured at 3.9 percent for people with disabilities.
This indicates that people with disabilities in the labour force have been consistently unemployed at higher rates than people without a disability for over a decade.
Does the unemployment gap vary between states and territories?
The unemployment gap is observed at its highest in Queensland, where the gap is measured at 7.7 percent, and its lowest in Victoria, at 2.2 percentage points.
Despite this variance, people with disabilities face higher unemployment rates in every state.
There are varying extents of employment discrimination across states, that clearly demonstrates a significant gap in unemployment rates between disabled and non-disabled people in the labour force.
*Data collected from NT, ACT and Tas has not been published by AIHW so as not to identify individuals
Source: AIWH, Unemployment Gap
What about people who aren’t in the labour force?
The majority of people with a disability (67.2 per cent) are not in the labour force.
Whilst a large portion of disabled people outside the labour force are permanently unable to work, the percent of people who have actively looked for work in the last four weeks shows that those living with disabilities seek work at roughly the same rate as those living without a disability, with 1.4 per cent for disabled and 1.9 per cent for those without a disability.
This data shows that people with disabilities are actively seeking employment at similar rates to people without disabilities, yet they remain overrepresented in unemployment rates.
The AIWH also found that the percentage of people without a disability, that do not intend to look for work, is more than double the percentage of people with a disability who do not intend to look for work.
Source: AIHW, People with disability in Australia
How does the gap affect young people?
Employment rates for people with disabilities are slowly improving, however, as of last quarter, only 23.5 per cent of NDIS participants had full award wage employment.
The percentage of young NDIS participants aged 15-24, with full award wage employment, is even lower, at just 18.8 per cent.
Source: AIHW, Australia’s Disability Strategy Outcomes Framework
As the graph shows, not much has changed in the last five years.
According to data from the AIHW, 41.9 per cent of unemployed people with a disability aged 15-24 have never worked. This is where NDIS providers like PosAbilities come in to help support young people with disabilities.
PosAbilities managing director, Josephine Opie has always worked with vulnerable young people, teaching across three states, including in an Aboriginal community in Arnhem land.
“Here at PosAbilities, we focus on the young people’s strengths,” Ms Opie said.
“And it seems to work really well with our autistic young people.”
PosAbilities offers what used to be a School Leavers Employment Support (SLES) program, now rebranded as Youth Employment Assistance.
The change aims to give more flexibility to people with disabilities being able to return to or stay in the program beyond two years.
Ms Opie has welcomed the change and said it will support young people at PosAbilities who develop in different ways at different paces.
“Basically the program is to prepare them for work,” she said.
“It can be anything from time management to managing money, health and safety communication, what it’s like to be in the workplace, building the confidence, getting access to work skills in lots of different ways.”
PosAbilities has a florist cafe on site, Buds & Brews, that is open to the public Wednesday to Friday.
The cafe helps provide a safe space for young people to gain confidence in their work skills in a safe and supported working environment.
“It’s all about building their confidence,” Ms Opie said.
“It’s developing their skills around being in the workplace, work expectations from employers, looking at safe practises.
“We have the Florist Cafe on site, so we are able to provide them with a really safe environment to make mistakes and practise.
“That really does empower our young people. They really belong here, that’s the words they use. It’s more than just an employment program.”
However, employment is a two player game, and employers don’t always come to the table, she said.
“The one thing that we get really frustrated with is that there really is a need for some education for employers around the benefits of employing neurodivergent people,” Ms Opie said.
“I think a lot of our employers are kind of keen and want to do the right thing, but come to the crunch they’re not brave enough to make that call and employ the quirky one that they interviewed.
“It’s a lot to be done yet to support employers in education around the benefits of employing the neurodivergent person.”
Hotel Etico is another organisation empowering people with a disability to enter the workforce.
As Australia’s first not-for-profit social enterprise hotel group staffed by people with disability, Hotel Etico provides a live-in work environment for people with disabilities to acquire work skills in the tourism and hospitality industry.
Of Hotel Etico’s graduates, 83 per cent have transitioned to open employment.
The hotel also provides employer support, including inclusive training modules, consultancy and a pool of talented and motivated individuals.
The employment of young people with disabilities has climbed slowly since 2021, from 17.1 per cent to 20.3 per cent. However, last quarter the employment rate dropped for the first time in the last five years, by 0.5 per cent.
Source: AIHW, Australia’s Disability Strategy Outcomes Framework
Whilst the number of employed participants continue to rise, the drop in percentage last quarter shows that they are not rising proportionately.
This again emphasises that whilst employment of people with disabilities is improving, it is not enough to make a difference to the unemployment gap.
Image source: Hotel Etico