Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its annual data about disabled people in the U.S. workforce. The data show that through the end of 2024, disabled employment continued to trend upward. However, inequities remain for disabled people, particularly disabled women and disabled people of color, and there are signs that any progress from the past five years could already be plateauing or reversing. These warning signs come as President Trump and his administration have kicked off their term with full-throated attacks on workers with disabilities and their civil rights. The scaremongering around disabled people at work, particularly those with intellectual disabilities, and the gutting of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs that help workers demonstrate their full breadth of experience, will likely lead to tough times ahead for disabled workers. Meanwhile, unelected billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) work to slash the number of civil servants, who are more likely to be disabled and veterans than workers overall, and who do vital work every day to ensure disabled people have access to education, employment and more.
In 2024, 22.7 percent of disabled people ages 16-64 were employed, a historic high that is nonetheless abysmally low compared to nondisabled people (65.5 percent). Disabled people were also only about 35 percent as likely to be in the labor force compared to nondisabled people, with disabled women – who are more likely than men to have a disability – even less likely to be in the labor force.
Labor market inequities are the direct result of deliberate policy choices shaped by racism, sexism, ableism and other systems of oppression. These large concepts manifest in more measurable ways; for example, due to disproportionate exposure to pollution and injurious workplace conditions, Black and Native people are more likely than other working-age adults to be disabled. Across numerous labor market measures, the ableism faced by disabled workers – and the compounding effects faced by disabled women workers and disabled workers of color – are clear. Due in large part to the barriers to employment, as extensively explored in National Partnership’s “Systems Transformation Guide to Disability Economic Justice: Jobs and Employment,” disabled workers are less likely to look for work and less likely to find work when they seek it.
As a result, even when jobs appear to be plentiful – as they are now – many of those jobs are not meaningfully available or accessible to disabled people who are seeking employment. In 2024, disabled people were nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as nondisabled people, a troubling trend that has remained largely consistent for the past 10 years.
Intersecting marginalized identities can also result in compounding harms. For example, Black and Latinx people with disabilities had even higher unemployment rates than white disabled people, at 10.7 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively. In addition, Black (22.8 percent) and Asian (20.7 percent) people with disabilities are less likely to be in the labor force than white (24.7 percent) people with disabilities, but Latinx people are more likely to be in the labor force (27.8 percent).
Across all genders and races, there are also large gaps between disabled and nondisabled people in the employment-population ratio (the share of disabled people currently employed compared to the working-age population). Where the unemployment rate only accounts for people who are actively looking for a job, the employment-population ratio can provide a broader view that also accounts for people who are either not able to hold a job or who have been so discouraged that they are no longer applying for jobs. While 65.5 percent of all nondisabled people are employed, only 20.6 percent of all disabled women are employed. Only 19.4 percent of Asian people with disabilities are employed, the largest disparity of any group when compared to nondisabled people.
None of these data reflect an immovable reality. In fact, recent history has shown that removing the barriers that keep disabled people out of employment can make a difference. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people with disabilities have grown as a share of the workforce, and their employment also increased, though the increase might be levelling off. Labor force participation among disabled women jumped more than 25 percent between 2019 and 2024. Additionally, the gap in employment between disabled men and women is narrower than before the pandemic, although it widened slightly in 2023 and remained level in 2024.
Some of these gains are attributable to a tight labor market, and others to the growing number of disabled people. One major factor in employment gains is increased access to remote work. Although some employers are fixated on an old-fashioned standard of full-time in-person work in jobs that don’t require it, hybrid and remote work seem to be settling at levels much higher than where they were at pre-COVID – leaving doors open for disabled workers, as well as parents, families, caregivers and others, that had been closed before.
Keeping those doors open is even more critical because disabled people are a growing share of the population. Disability becomes more common with age, and the population of the United States is rapidly aging. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the “mass disabling event” that followed supercharged this trend. The CDC reported that, in 2024, approximately 18 percent of U.S. adults, or more than 47 million individuals, had ever had long COVID. U.S. Census Bureau data also shows that transgender people and cisgender women are more likely to experience long COVID compared to cisgender men, and rates of long COVID are also elevated for disabled, Latinx and multiracial people.
Unfortunately, recent attacks on disabled workers could reverse much of this hard-won progress. In addition to President Trump’s Executive Orders making the federal government a less accessible workplace and undermining enforcement of legally required anti-discrimination and affirmative action for qualified disabled workers at federal contractors under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. Meanwhile, House Republicans have proposed gutting Medicaid, which would harm the ability of millions of disabled workers to find paid work in the private sector. Disabled people who want jobs should not be demonized. They should have access to the supports and protections they need.
Today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data continue to show a need for policy changes that improve inclusion and equity, not only for disabled workers, but also for those disabled folks who are not in the workforce. Discrimination, occupational segregation, work disincentives, barriers to competitive integrated employment and the United States’ broken care infrastructure all play a role in preventing disabled workers from accessing jobs. We’ve seen the impact that policy can have on the lives of disabled people; the working-age population born after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) have higher employment rates than their older compatriots. We must continue to fight for policies that support economic security for disabled folks, including the following:
- Modernize Social Security benefits, eligibility and asset limits to adjust for current levels of inflation and costs of living.
- Eliminate the subminimum wage for disabled workers.
- Raise the minimum wage for all workers.
- Combat workplace discrimination with robust enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.
- Establish national paid family and medical leave and paid sick leave for all that allow employees to care for chosen and extended family (this is critical for disabled people, who are more likely to care for chosen family).
- Support workplace flexibility, including remote work and flexible schedules, where possible.
- Abandon attempts to sabotage Medicaid and instead strengthen home- and community-based services and support care workers funded through Medicaid.
Note: Importantly, while employment is a primary source of income for many people, our inherent value is not based on our ability to work. The three-quarters of disabled people who are not in the workforce – whether it is because they are 65 or older, cannot work, do not want to work or for any other reason – deserve economic security, too. We are committed to both equitable employment and workforce policies for disabled people and the broader systemic change needed for the full economic, social and political inclusion of all disabled women.
Additionally, it is critical to note these data do not include adults in institutional settings. Disabled people are more likely than nondisabled people to have lived in punitive (i.e., prisons, jails) or therapeutic (i.e., residential treatment facilities, hospitals) institutions. Those individuals may even be paid subminimum wages, as well as exposed to other harmful, abusive treatment. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), certain employers may pay disabled workers subminimum wages, though the Biden administration sought to overturn this policy. Incarcerated workers may also be paid subminimum wages.
The authors are grateful to Kate Gallagher Robbins, Amaya Smith, Gail Zuagar, Mettabel Law, Sharita Gruberg, and Sarah Coombs for their important contributions to this piece.
