Labour Market Disadvantage amongst Disabled People:A Longitudinal Perspective

Considerable cross-sectional evidence has highlighted the lower employmentrates and earnings amongst disabled people in Britain. But very little is knownabout the progression of disabled people in employment. This study uses datafrom the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to examine the labour market progressionof disabled people in Britain along several dimensions: earnings growth, lowpaytransition probabilities, changes in labour market participation, the rate oftraining and the rate of upward occupational mobility. The analysis alsoexplores the extent of heterogeneity in the labour market progression ofdisabled people with respect to differences in age, education, occupation anddisability severity.The evidence indicates that the earnings trajectories of disabled people lagbehind those for non-disabled people, especially for men. The median annualchange in earnings is 1.4 percent lower for disabled men and 0.6 percent lowerfor disabled women compared to non-disabled men and women respectively.Moreover, disabled people are approximately three times more likely to exitwork than their non-disabled counterparts, a difference that increases markedlyfor more-severely disabled people. The evidence highlights the need for policyto tackle the barriers that disabled people face in the workplace, not merely inaccess to jobs.[...]