Disability in the Labor Market: Employment and Participation

Rajashri Chakrabarti, Thu Pham, Beckett Pierce and Maxim L. Pinkovskiy
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Rajashri Chakrabarti: https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/economists/chakrabarti
Maxim L. Pinkovskiy: https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/economists/pinkovskiy

No 20260112a, Liberty Street Economics from Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract: Among people in prime working age (25-54), around 7 percent have a disability of some kind. In this set of companion posts, we will examine how prime-aged workers with disabilities have fared in the labor market compared to the year prior to the pandemic. In this first post, we will show that people with disabilities are far less likely to be employed than people without disabilities, with both lower labor force participation and higher unemployment playing a role. We will also show that although employment rates of people with disabilities are very low, they have risen rapidly during the post-pandemic period, largely because of rising labor force participation. Our results are consistent with an increased prevalence of work from home (WFH) arrangements in the post-COVID period differentially benefiting people with disabilities.

Keywords: disability; employment; unemployment; labor force participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-01-12
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DOI: 10.59576/lse20260112a

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