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The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global recession that has both increased unemployment and widened the disability employment gap in the UK, a trend that has also been observed in the USA and is likely to be mirrored in many other countries. Disabled workers are likely to continue to experience higher rates of unemployment, for a longer period, than non-disabled workers, for several reasons.

Recessions increase competitiveness for jobs and can encourage more selective recruitment; in the current context there is a risk that employers will be deterred from recruiting disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions who need to shield during further waves of COVID-19.

In addition, disabled workers are over-represented in employment sectors that were hit hardest by the pandemic and the ensuing recession, and they are less likely to be employed in professional and other non-manual jobs that are conducive to home-working. Consequently, the degree to which disabled workers will be winners or losers in the UK’s post-COVID-19 labour market is likely to depend upon the sector and type of work they are employed in.

The fortunes of disabled workers who are employed in desk-based roles look more favourable, however. Many organisations, some of whom had previously withheld homeworking from employees, had to act swiftly and flexibly at the onset of the pandemic to facilitate home-working. This led to a sudden growth in home-working, which a large proportion of employees and employers are reluctant to relinquish.

The pandemic challenged organisational policy and practice to be adaptive to sudden societal change; if this leads to a permanent cultural shift to widespread availability of home-working, it has the potential to address not only some of the employment inequities experienced by disabled workers, but also to level the playing field for individuals living in ‘left behind’ communities with high unemployment who would benefit from greater access to wider labour markets.

Home-working can circumvent some of the barriers that can lead to job loss or underemployment of disabled workers by offering a more inclusive way of working, reducing the need to commute and providing jobseekers with access to a wider labour market. Increased and universal access to home-working for all workers would avoid workplace conflict and stigma that can result from it being requested as a reasonable adjustment, and could encourage the recruitment of disabled workers who need to shield into jobs amenable to home-working. It is important, however, that workers have choice and control over the decision to home-work, and that organisations implement measures to mitigate the potentially negative impacts of home-working.

In order for post-pandemic economic growth to be sustainable and equitable, preexisting inequalities within the economy must be addressed. This requires multisectoral actions and policies that tackle factors contributing to the disability employment gap. For example, the UK still has much to do to increase the provision of inclusive education for disabled children and young people, and to support their transition into the labour market. Disabled people are significantly more likely to have no qualifications, and significantly less likely to have a university degree, compared with non-disabled people, and this educational disadvantage reduces their access to professional and higher-paid jobs. More also needs to be done to increase employers’ awareness of their legal obligations to provide reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act, and to make clear the business case for providing inclusive workplaces. Rather than returning to ‘normal’ ways of working, societies have the opportunity to ‘build back better’, addressing injustices and levelling the playing field for disabled workers in the post-pandemic labour market.

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