According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2014 unemployment rate was 5.9 percent. But for people with disabilities it was more than double that, at 12.5 percent.
A recent study highlights one reason why many people with disabilities have trouble finding work. Researchers at Syracuse and Rutgers Universities found that employers were significantly less likely to express interest in job applicants with disabilities than in those without disabilities.
In a National Bureau of Economic Research paper titled “The Disability Employment Puzzle: Field Experiment on Employer Hiring Behavior,” researchers sent cover letters and resumes by fictitious applicants to thousands of accounting firms.
They discovered that employers expressed interest in candidates who disclosed disabilities 26 percent less often than candidates without disabilities. The researchers said they weren’t surprised that employers were less likely to be interested in applicants with disabilities. But they were surprised by how large the effect was.
By writing the resumes identical in every way save the disclosure of a disability, the researchers were able to “isolate the effect” of the disability.
The research team wrote one resume for highly-qualified applicants with six years of experience and another for entry-level candidates just out of college. For each template, they created three types of candidates: One with a spinal cord injury, another with Asperger’s syndrome and another with no disability. Interestingly, researchers didn’t find much variance between the amount of discrimination experienced by candidates with spinal cord injuries and those with Asperger’s.
The researchers found that employers were about one third less likely to show interest in an experienced disabled candidate but just 15 percent less likely to be interested in a novice disabled candidate. In other words, people with disabilities who are older and more experienced are seen as riskier investments by potential employers and are therefore more likely to experience employment discrimination.
When President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act a quarter century ago, he proclaimed, “With today’s signing of the landmark Americans for Disabilities Act, every man, woman, and child with a disability can now pass through once-closed doors into a bright new era of equality, independence, and freedom.” But as this study suggests, when it comes to finding employment, those doors remain at least partially closed for people with disabilities.
Daniel Allott is deputy commentary editor for the Washington Examiner.
