Survey of Employer Policies on the Employment of People with Disabilities Employer Practices and Attitudes toward the Employment of People with Disabilities Issue Brief

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Release Date: June 01, 2020

Survey of Employer Policies on the Employment of People with Disabilities Employer Practices and Attitudes toward the Employment of People with Disabilities Issue Brief

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Topic

Disability and Employment

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About the Brief

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The brief related to the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy's (ODEP) Survey of Employer Policies on the Employment of People with Disabilities examines employers’ efforts to employ, recruit, and hire people with disabilities and their attitudes toward people with disabilities.

Key Takeaways

  • Between 2008 and 2018, the percentage of companies that currently employ at least one person with a disability increased from 18.4 percent to 22.6 percent, the percentage that recruit people with disabilities increased from 13.5 percent to 17.5 percent, and the percentage that hired at least one person with a disability in the past 12 months increased from 8.5 percent to 13.5 percent.
  • The underlying dimensions of employer concerns about hiring people with disabilities include work performance, social issues, and cost.
  • Using logistic regression analysis, researchers found that concerns about work performance were negatively related to recruiting people with disabilities. There was no relationship between concerns about cost and recruitment of people with disabilities.
  • Concerns were higher among small companies than medium-sized and large companies and among companies in the goods-producing sector than companies in the service-providing or public administration sectors.

Citation

Gasper, J., Muz, B., Palan, M. (2019). Westat. Employer Practices and Attitudes toward the Employment of People with Disabilities. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.