Moving in , staying in , falling out : employment transitions of disabled people

The low rate of employment among disabled people in Britain has often been observed, but is not well understood. This paper examines the dynamics of disabled people's employment, with a view to reaching a better understanding of the processes which underlie the cross-sectional picture. The analysis uses data from the first seven waves of the British Household Panel Survey and focuses on three transitions: movements into work, employment retention for new entrants, and loss of employment after becoming disabled in work. Comparisons are made with the nondisabled population, with and without controls for age, educational qualifications and occupational background. Where possible, types and severities of impairment are differentiated. The results show disabled people out of work are one-sixth as likely as non-disabled people to move into work during the course of a year. Those that do so are more likely to enter manual occupations and work in smaller workplaces. Onethird of new entrants are out of work again by the following year, compared to onefifth of non-disabled entrants. Among individuals who become disabled while in work, 1 in 5 leave employment within the following year. Controls for personal characteristics reduce but do not eliminate the differentials. The paper concludes that there are three distinct sources of labour-market disadvantage for disabled people: firstly, there are impairment-specific barriers; secondly, disabled people are more likely to have characteristics associated with general labour market disadvantage, such as low qualifications; and thirdly, in some cases the difference between advantage and disadvantage for example between manual and non-manual occupations is sharper for disabled than non-disabled people. Each of these sources of disadvantage will need to be tackled if labour market opportunities are to be equalised.