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In the year to October-December 2020, the number of disabled people in employment has increased, but the proportion of disabled people who are in employment has fallen. 8.4 million people of working age (16-64) reported that they were disabled in October-December 2020, which is 20% of the working age population.

This is an increase of 327,000 from the year before. Of these, an estimated 4.4 million were in employment, an increase of 25,000 from a year previously. 52.3% of disabled people were in employment, down from 54.1% a year previously. The employment rate for people who are not disabled was 81.1%, down from 82.2%. 400,000 disabled people were unemployed. This was 76,000 more than the number who were unemployed a year previously.

The unemployment rate for disabled people was 8.4% in OctoberDecember 2020, up from 6.9% a year previously. This compared to an unemployment rate of 4.6% for people who are not disabled.

3.6 million disabled people of working age were economically inactive. These people were not in work and not looking for work. This was an increase of 226,000 from a year before.4 Disabled people were considerably more likely than those who are not disabled to be economically inactive.

While, the economic inactivity rate for disabled people was 42.9%, the corresponding figure for those who are not disabled was 14.9%. The high rate of economic inactivity, alongside a higher unemployment rate, explains why disabled people have a low employment rate. Disabled people have an employment rate that is 28.8 percentage points lower than that of people who are not disabled. This difference is often referred to as the disability employment gap.

Impact of the coronavirus pandemic

Over the last year the proportion of disabled people who are in employment has gone down, while the proportion who are either unemployed, or economically inactive, has gone up. The proportion of disabled people who are either unemployed or economically inactive has risen from 45.9% to 47.7% in the year to October-December 2021.

People who are not disabled have also seen an increase in the proportion who are either unemployed or economically inactive, but the increase has been smaller from 17.8% to 18.9%. This has meant that that the disability employment gap has increased over the last year from 28.1% points to 28.8 percentage points.

The ONS have reported that a higher proportion of disabled employees have been made redundant than employees who are not disabled. In July-November 2020, 21.1 per thousand disabled employees were made redundant, compared to 13.0 per thousand employees who are not disabled.

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