Archive:Disability statistics - employment patterns
This article is part of the set of articles on Disability that provides information on the employment characteristics of the working age individuals that have a disability, based on the data of the 2011 ad-hoc module of the EU Labour Force Survey (LFS-AHM). Apart from information on the EU-28 and its individual Member States, data for Turkey, Iceland and Switzerland are also covered.
Different aspects linked to employment are addressed, such as part-time work, work at home, supervisory responsibility, the economic activity (according to the NACE Rev. 2 classification) and the type of occupation (ISCO-08). Results presented in this article have been compiled according to two definitions of disability, as follows:
- Definition 1: Persons having a basic activity difficulty (such as seeing, hearing, walking, communicating);
- Definition 2: Persons limited in their work activity because of a longstanding health problem and/or a basic activity difficulty (LHPAD).
Main statistical findings
More than 15% of employed disabled persons worked from home in 2011, against 13% for those without any disability
In general, the percentage of people working at home (having disabilities or not) varies considerably across countries, ranging from 20% to 30% in the Nordic countries, Austria, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom to values under 5% in some Southern and South-eastern European countries.
At the EU-28 level, whatever the disability definition, the proportion of people working at home (usually or sometimes) was higher for the persons reporting a disability than for those without disabilities (15.4% against 13.0% respectively) (see Table 1).
This situation prevails in all individual countries except for Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Slovenia and Slovakia where an opposite situation was registered regarding both definitions.
Moreover, in Iceland, the difference was close to 5 percentage points when considering the 2nd definition, favouring the persons having a work limitation due to LHPAD. On the other side of the spectrum, Denmark reported the highest difference between the two populations with less people working at home among the group reporting difficulties compared to the group without difficulties (whatever the definition considered).
Persons having supervisor responsibilities: little difference among persons with or without basic activities difficulties
Regarding persons having supervisory responsibilities, the difference observed between persons with and without basic activities difficulties is not significant at the level of the EU-28 (21.1% against 22.5%) (see Figure 1).
At country level, more noticeable differences were found (between 5 and 6 percentage points higher for persons without basic activities difficulties) in the Czech Republic, Latvia, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Conversely, in Austria, more persons with basic activity difficulties had supervisory activities (26.6%) than persons without these difficulties (25.1%). Quite noticeable is the proportion of persons with supervisor responsibilities in Iceland: 4 out of 10 persons surveyed (with or without basic activity difficulties) declared having such a job profile, a sharp contrast to the situation in Romania and Slovakia (around 10% of the employed population).
For the second definition, denoting persons with a limitation in work caused by a LHPAD, the difference is more outspoken (4 percentage points at EU level).
With more than 8 percentage points difference, the biggest variations between both groups regarding persons with supervisory responsibilities were observed for Czech-Republic, Hungary, Malta and Luxembourg. In Estonia, Greece and Iceland, the proportion of persons with supervisor responsibilities was actually higher among the group with limitations in work activities compared to those without limitations.
Disabled people are more likely to work part time
Persons reporting a basic activity difficulty were more likely to have a part-time employment at the level of the EU-28 (see Figure 2): 26.0% was part-time employed against only 17.7% of persons without difficulties.
At country level, an identical picture was observed, the exception being Austria where the two groups of populations recorded the same rate (23% each). The Netherlands, a country where part-time employment is particularly wide spread, recorded the highest proportion, whatever the group of population considered (60.7% for persons with a basic activity difficulty; 47.4% for the group of persons without difficulties). At the other side of the scale, Greece had a proportion of less than 8% for both aforementioned groups. Moreover, it can be noticed that for the Czech-Republic (13.6%), Hungary (25.9%) and Slovakia (12.7%), the share of part-time employment among persons with a basic activity difficulty was 3 to 5 times higher compared to the group of persons without disabilities.
At the EU-28 level, the proportion of part-time employment in the disabled population was higher according to the second definition of disability (33.0%) comparing with the first definition (26.0%). Among the individual countries, the proportion of part-timers ranged from 8.5% in Greece to 67.0% in the Netherlands for persons reporting a work limitation caused by a LHPAD. For the group without a work limitation, only the Netherlands registered a rate over 40%. The lowest rates were observed for Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, with less than 5%.
Skilled manual workers counted for more than 60% of the persons having a work limitation due to LHPAD in Croatia and Romania
The proportion of skilled manual workers among employed persons aged 15-64 varied significantly between the countries (see Figure 3). Skilled manual workers among employed persons without disabilities counted for less than 25% in 17 countries, between 25% and 34% in 12 countries, around 37% in Poland and reached 47% in Romania, whatever the definition considered.
The highest proportion of skilled manual workers having a work limitation were found in Greece (50.7%), Croatia (60.1%) and Romania (61.8%). The situation was similar for the three aforementioned countries, with slightly lower proportions (respectively of 42.9%, 51.8% and 54%) when considering the second definition.
A special situation was observed in Iceland where the proportion of skilled manual workers among the population without a disability was superior to the one among disabled population (21% versus 18-20%, depending on the disability definition). Conversely, skilled manual workers were far more represented among those having a work limitation caused by a LHPAD with at least 10 percentage points difference in Austria (33.5%), Croatia (60.1%) Greece (50.7%), Lithuania (40.1%), Poland (48.1%) and Romania (61.8%). A similar gap (with more than 13 percentage points difference) was observed for Croatia (51.8%) and Greece (42.9%) regarding skilled manual workers among those having a basic activity difficulty.
Employment in agriculture over-represented among persons with disabilities
At the level of the EU-28, for both disabled and not disabled employed persons, the sector of services employed about 7 out of 10 persons; industry and construction sector counted for more than 23% while agriculture, forestry and fishing counted for less than 8% (data not shown).
Unsurprisingly, specific patterns are noted at country level. Indeed, if the sector of agriculture, forestry and fishing was important in Croatia and Greece (about 11%), in Poland (about 12%), in Romania (more than 24%) and in Turkey (about 20%) for the employment of persons without disabilities, it was even more so for persons having limitations in work caused by a LHPAD. This was particularly the case for Croatia, displaying an according share of 38.9%, 27.3% in Greece, 28.2% in Poland, 54.1% in Romania and 44.0% in Turkey.
Moreover, in Cyprus and Slovenia, a difference of more than 3 percentage points was observed for the sector of industry and construction between employed persons with and without disabilities, according to the second definition. For both countries, the differences were more marked with the first definition (about 5 percentage points difference for Cyprus and about 6 percentage point’s difference for Slovenia)
Data sources and availability
The main data source used for this publication is the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). It is a quarterly, large sample survey providing results for the population in private households in the EU, EFTA and the candidate countries.
The EU-LFS included an ad-hoc module on employment of disabled people in 2002 and 2011. The aim of this module was to provide information on the situation of disabled people on the labour market as compared to those without disabilities.
Further information is available from the SE on background information.
Context
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes in Article 27 “the right of persons with disabilities to work, on an equal basis with others; this includes the right to the opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted in a labour market and work environment that is open, inclusive and accessible to persons with disabilities”. This includes prohibition of discrimination, protection of rights, access to education, employment in the public and private sector, possibilities for self-employment and support in order to maintain employment on equal terms with others. The OECD acknowledged as far back as 1992 that: “A need for more co-ordination of all policies which affect the labour market participation of people with disabilities is an overriding concern”. The national reports on the employment of disabled people in European countries provide evidence of widespread initiatives in policy and legislation in recent years. These include, for example, the right to an interview (e.g. in Poland and Denmark), assistance in adaptation of the workplace, employer incentives/subsidies, rights to flexible working, job matching, personal assistance at work, support for self-employment, etc. Although many initiatives have been taken, and more focus has been given to the integration of disabled people, more can be done. There is thus still a need for more knowledge, and more co-ordination in the area. Indeed, there is a relative lack of information about the types of jobs and sectors that disabled people are employed in, not least because many disabled people employed in the ordinary labour market are not recognised or measured in reported figures, e.g. because they are not recorded as having work limitations or receiving specific support services.
See also
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- Statistical analysis and publication of the results of the 2011 Labour Force Survey ad hoc module on employment of disabled people
Database
- Disability, see:
- Access to labour market for disabled people (Source LFS) (hlth_dsb_lm)
Dedicated section
- Health, see
- Disability
Methodology / Metadata
- Prevalence of disability (source LFS) (hlth_dsb_prv)
- Background articles in Statistics Explained
Other information
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 317/2010 of 16 April 2010 adopting the specifications of the 2011 ad hoc module on employment of disabled people for the labour force sample survey provided for by Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98
External links
- European Disability Strategy 2010-2020
- The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)
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