The employment of disabled people 2021

Since 2013 (the earliest comparable year using the current definition of disability) up to the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic the general trend in disability employment had been positive.

There had been strong growth in the number and rate of disabled people in employment and a narrowing of the gap, between the rate of disabled and non-disabled people in employment.

The pandemic initially reversed these trends with year-on-year changes showing a fall in the disability employment rate and a widening of the disability employment gap in Q2 (April to June), Q3 (July to September) and Q4 (October to December) of 2020. There are now signs of trends improving with the disability employment rate returning to its pre-pandemic level in Q2 2021. The disability employment gap also started to narrow again in Q2 2021.

• there were 4.4m disabled people in employment in the UK in Q2 2021. This is estimated an increase of 300,000 on the year, an increase of 390,000 since Q2 2019 and an overall increase of 1.5m since Q2 2013
• the disability employment rate was 52.7% in Q2 2021, compared to 81.0% for non-disabled people. For disabled people, this is an increase of 0.3 percentage points on the year, an increase of 0.1 percentage points since Q2 2019 and an overall increase of 9.0 percentage points since Q2 2013
• the disability employment gap was 28.4 percentage points in Q2 2021. This is a decrease of 0.7 percentage points on the year, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points Q2 2019 and an overall decrease of 4.8 percentage points since Q2 2013
• on average around 340,000 disabled workers move out of work each year and 380,000 workless disabled people move into work (includes people who were classed as disabled at the start of the year)
• disabled workers move out of work at nearly twice the rate (8.8%) of non-disabled workers (4.9%). Workless disabled people move into work at nearly one-third of the rate (11.0%) of workless non-disabled people (26.9%)

The increasing number of disabled people in employment is being driven by three main components of change: disability prevalence (50%), the disability employment gap (25%) and the non-disabled employment rate (20%).

• 1 in 5 of the working-age population are classed as disabled
• more people are reporting a long-term health condition or disability than did so eight years ago
• the increasing number of people reporting a disability is being largely driven by an increase in mental health conditions
• nearly 1 in 3 people classed as being disabled one year are no longer classed as being disabled the next

The disability employment gap is wider for:

• disabled men
• older (aged 50 to 64) disabled people
• disabled people with no qualifications
• disabled people of White ethnicity
• disabled people living in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, North West, and North East

The disability employment rate is lower for disabled people:

• with a mental health condition
• with five or more health conditions

Disabled people are more likely than non-disabled people to be:

• working in lower-skilled occupations
• self-employed
• working part-time (and subsequently less hours)
• working in the public sector
• temporarily away from work

Disabled people are as likely as non-disabled people to be:

• working for a small or medium sized employer
• in ‘quality work’

Disabled people are more likely to be working in health, retail, and education than other industries.

Read the full report here.