Disability and Employment

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Sarah Portlock of the WSJ reports,

In 2013, just over one in six — or 17.6% — of people who were disabled had a job, down slightly from the prior year. The report tracks workforce characteristics of people with a disability, which includes hearing, sight, cognition, mobility or other impairments.

…The Labor Department report comes as new regulations require federal contractors to ask their employees if they have a disability in an effort to reduce joblessness in the community. Companies must employ a minimum of 7% disabled workers, or prove they are taking steps to hire more, or else they could face penalties or lose their government contracts.

In the first paragraph, she links to a report from the Department of Labor.

Government policies shift the supply curve of disabled workers to the left, by offering benefits for not working. The second paragraph describes a policy to shift the demand curve to the right. What would standard economic analysis predict?

8 thoughts on “Disability and Employment”

  4. That the employment rate of the disabled will converge to the overall employment rate, as everyone under the sun will be classified as disabled by their employer.

  5. Feds issue statement that “all your disabled are belong to us!”

    Maybe it’s good. Maybe the government should pay for the disability label rather than fully externalizing it to taxpayers.

  6. I don’t know what standard economic analysis will predict but can I get a disability check for my bunions?

  7. First, employers presently may be penalized for asking job applicants about disability (for fear that employers may discriminate against them), and now employers are going to be penalized for NOT employing a sufficient number of disabled — which in some cases (i.e, non-visible disability) may only be recognized via direct inquiry re: same.

    I’m getting whiplash.

    And, where does that 7% quota come from? Thin air? Because it’s a prime number? What?

  8. Greater supply of disabled by way of rather more people trying to be classified as disabled and more employers trying to get their employees classified as disabled.

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