THE employment rate for disabled individuals in Scotland exceeds 50 per cent for the first time in over a decade, revealed by the new Labour Market Statistics for Scotland by Disability published today (31).
In 2022, an estimated 436,400 disabled individuals aged 16 to 64 were employed.
The employment rate for disabled individuals aged 16 to 64 was estimated to be 50.7 per cent, up from 49.6 per cent in 2021.
This is much lower than the non-disabled rate of 82.5 per cent.
Non-disabled people’s employment rate grew from 80.8 per cent in 2021 to 82.5 per cent in 2022. Non-disabled employment has also surpassed the 2019 (pre-pandemic) figure of 81.6 per cent.
According to Wellbeing Economy Secretary Neil Grey, the data suggest that Scotland is making strong progress towards its goal of halving the disability employment gap by 2038.
He said: “This confirms significant progress is being made to ensure fairer and more inclusive workplaces across Scotland, building on our ambition to at least halve the disability employment gap by 2038.
“Our tailored pre-employment and in-work support are helping disabled people get into and remain in work.
“A key Scottish Government target was to increase the employment rate of disabled people to 50 per cent by 2023. The rate reached 50.7 per cent in 2022 – meeting this milestone a year early.
“There is no place for discrimination in society, including workplaces, and we will continue to work closely with disabled people, their representative organisations and employers so their voices and experiences help shape policy and further action to continue closing the disability employment gap in Scotland.”
The difference between the employment rates for non-disabled and disabled people is the disability employment rate gap.
The disability employment rate gap was estimated to be 31.9 percentage points (pp). This is a statistically significant disparity.
The disability employment rate gap has grown by 0.7 percentage points (pp) in a year. However, it has fallen by 0.8 pp since 2019 (pre-pandemic) and continues to close the gap recorded before the pandemic.
Over time, the disability employment rate difference has shrunk by 5.5 percentage points, from 37.4 to 31.9 percent.
The reduction in the disability employment rate gap from 2019 to 2022 and 2016 to 2022 was due to disabled people’s employment rate growing faster than non-disabled people’s employment rate over the same time.
Furthermore, a projected 28,900 disabled individuals aged 16 to 64 were unemployed in 2022. The unemployment rate for disabled people aged 16 to 64 was estimated to be 6.2 per cent.
This was greater than the rate for non-disabled persons (2.8 per cent). The unemployment rate for non-disabled persons is the same as it was in 2019 (pre-pandemic).
However, the unemployment rate for disabled people is currently lower than it was in 2019 (8.2 per cent), and it is lower than it has been since 2014.
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