Posted on: Monday, September 6, 2004

Jobless rate misleading

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — There's a big difference between not having a job and being unemployed, but advocates of disabled people often don't make that distinction.

People without jobs include many Americans — both disabled and not — who are not considered part of the workforce because they are students, retirees and homemakers. Others don't have a job because they are unwilling or physically unable to work.

However, to be unemployed means a person is ready, able and willing to take a job immediately.

Advocates for the disabled and government officials often note that 50 percent to 70 percent of disabled adults aren't employed and call it the unemployment rate.

That statistic — though incorrect — is often quoted because the Labor Department does not measure unemployment among disabled people.

The privately financed National Organization on Disability tried to rectify this lack of information earlier this year by asking the polling firm Harris Interactive to estimate the percentage of disabled adults who are truly unemployed. Their estimate was 19 percent.

The Harris survey, released in June, also indicated a significant variation in unemployment depending on the severity of disability:

• Among the slightly disabled — for example, someone who has a slight limp — the jobless rate was estimated at 11 percent.
• But among those with severe disabilities — perhaps wheelchair users or people who are blind, deaf or missing a limb — the jobless rate more than doubled to 25 percent.
• Among people considered moderately disabled — perhaps blind in one eye or using a prosthetic limb — unemployment ran between 18 percent and 19 percent.