In this article:

These statistics relate to the employment of working age disabled people in the UK. They provide context for the government’s goal to see one million more disabled people in work between 2017 and 2027, and its commitment to reduce the employment rate gap with non-disabled people.

Main stories

• Employment is increasing for disabled people across a range of measures

• Increases in the number of disabled people in employment are linked with increases in the size of the disabled population and overall employment rates, as well as a narrowing of the disability employment gap.

Measuring disability and employment 

Estimates of disability in this release are split into three different time periods, based on how the data was collected at the time (self-reported by survey respondents). These are consistent with the definitions used in National Statistics estimates of disability employment published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of their Labour Market Overview release.

The most recent estimates, from April 2013 onwards, use the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonised Standard definition of disability, in line with the Equality Act 2010 (EA) core definition. In summary, it includes people of working age (16-64) who have a long-term physical or mental health condition that affects their day-to-day activities. Between January 2010 and March 2013, it was based on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) definition, which is similar, but results in a break in the series.

Prior to 2010, data was also based on the DDA definition of disability, but only collected for women aged 16-59 years and men aged 16-64 (the definition of working age at the time). Some small changes to the questionnaire wording also impacted on survey respondents’ reporting behaviour at this time, contributing to a further break in the series. All estimates for people who are “not disabled” refer to those not disabled under the definitions above, regardless of whether they may be disabled under any other definition.

Most estimates in this release are based on versions of the Labour Force Survey (LFS). To support a broader evidence base, it also compares high-level estimates with alternative data sources (the Family Resources Survey and Understanding Society). These alternative data sources are less timely than the LFS and have smaller sample sizes, so are not suitable for more detailed analyses. However, they show that the general trends are similar across different sources.

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