2009 Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics — 2010-08-25

The proportion of the population employed in 2009--the employment-population ratio--was 19.2 percent among those with a disability, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The employment-population ratio for persons without a disability was 64.5 percent. The unemployment rate of persons with a disability was 14.5 percent, higher than the rate for those with no disabil- ity, which was 9.0 percent. This is the first news release focusing on the employment status of persons with a disability. The information in this release was obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households that provides statistics on employment and unemployment in the United States. Beginning in June 2008, questions were added to the CPS that were designed to identify persons with a disability in the civilian noninsti- tutional population age 16 and over, and 2009 is the first calendar year for which annual averages are available.