Are workers living with disability part of Australia's employment success story?

16 May 2022

On Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release the latest national Labour Force statistics. It is expected that the April unemployment rate will continue the recent downward trend, with the March result of 4 percent being the equal lowest since 1974. 

What the new data will not tell us is whether people living with disability are sharing in the current employment success story. Despite commitments from all levels of government to improve employment outcomes for Australians living with disability, there is still no regular measurement of their labour force participation.

“The best data we currently have to understand the employment experiences of people living with disability in Australia is from the 2018 Survey of Disability, Ageing, and Carers,” JFA Purple Orange CEO Robbi Williams said.

“That data tells us that the unemployment rate for people living with disability was substantially higher than that for Australians generally at more than 10 per cent. It also tells us that there were high levels of discrimination and unfair treatment in workplaces, with 45.2 per cent of workers living with disability reporting being targeted by an employer and 42 per cent by their work colleagues.

“The statistic for the disability pay gap was particularly shocking, with the median gross personal income of a person living with disability at $505 per week in 2018, less than half that of a non-disabled person at $1016 per week at that time.

“But we don’t know what the situation is now, particularly after more than two years of the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic. Anecdotally, we hear that people living with disability are still facing significant barriers, but in terms of official national data, there’s nothing since 2018. 

“We urgently need robust up-to-date national data to understand what is happening in the labour market for people living with disability now and these outcomes must be measured on a regular ongoing basis into the future.”

In Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031 and in the accompanying Employment Targeted Action Plan, all levels of government committed to improving employment outcomes for people living with disability. However, these documents do not include a national target for what success would look like and the Outcomes Framework for the new Strategy states that results will be measured by the ABS’s Survey of Disability, Ageing, and Carers. As mentioned above, this survey has not been undertaken since 2018 and, according to the ABS website, the timing of the next survey and data release is “unknown.”

“If we are serious about improving employment outcomes as the Strategy states, then we must be serious about measuring progress in a robust way that ensures there is full accountability for delivering on the commitments made,” Mr Williams said. 

“For governments and bureaucracies, usually the things that matter most are the things that get measured. Employment outcomes for Australians living with disability matter and they should be measured properly and regularly.”

JFA Purple Orange is calling on all parties and candidates in the Federal Election to commit to:

• Establishing national annual targets for improving mainstream employment outcomes for people living with disability with the ultimate goal of achieving parity with non-disabled people by the end of the new Australia’s Disability Strategy in 2031
• Funding the ABS to undertake regular data collection regarding labour force participation, the pay gap, and the unemployment and underemployment rates for Australians living with disability at least once per year 

 

“Maximising the participation of Australians living with disability in authentic mainstream waged employment represents a huge opportunity for our nation,” Mr Williams said. “Doing so will generate benefits for individuals, communities, and the economy, as well as enabling all Australians to share in the national employment success story in the future.”

JFA Purple Orange has released a comprehensive election statement on employment, as well as a range of other statements that address many of the issues that are important to people living with disability in this election. To view our statements, visit https://purpleorange.org.au/news-resources/federal-election-2022.

JFA Purple Orange has also sought responses to these statements from parties and candidates in the election. Disappointingly, the Coalition and Labor are yet to respond.

  

Media enquiries:

Cathy Cochrane

Email: cathyc@purpleorange.org.au

Phone: 0401 308 957