Workplace disability statistics show a large gap between disability prevalence and labor-market participation in the United States. The measures below cover employment, occupation, education, race and ethnicity, workplace injuries, absence, job restriction and transfer, with each population, period and definition identified.
Key Workplace Disability Statistics
The most useful headline measures are:
- In the 2025 annual average, 35.286 million people with a disability were in the U.S. civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over.
- In the 2025 annual average, 8.755 million people with a disability were in the U.S. civilian labor force.
- In 2025, the labor-force participation rate was 24.8% for people with a disability, compared with 68.0% for people with no disability in the U.S. civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over.
- In 2025, 8.029 million people with a disability were employed in the U.S. civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over.
- In 2025, the employment-population ratio was 22.8% for people with a disability, compared with 65.2% for people with no disability.
- In 2025, the unemployment rate was 8.3% for people with a disability in the U.S. labor force, compared with 4.1% for people with no disability.
- Among people with a disability ages 16–64, the 2025 employment-population ratio was 38.1% in the United States.
- In 2025, 26.532 million people with a disability were not in the U.S. labor force.
- In 2025, 41.8% of people with a disability ages 16–64 participated in the labor force, compared with 8.3% of those age 65 and over.
- In 2025, 73.8% of people with a disability age 25 and over who had a bachelor’s degree or higher were employed.
- In 2025, the unemployment rate was 11.8% for Black people with a disability in the U.S. labor force, compared with 7.3% for White people with a disability.
- In 2025, workers with a disability usually worked part time at a 30% rate, compared with about 17% for workers with no disability.
- From 2016–2020, 14.8% of currently employed U.S. adults ages 18–64 in 35 states and Guam reported a disability.
- In 2016–2020, food-preparation and serving occupations had a 19.9% adjusted disability prevalence among currently employed adults ages 18–64 in the CDC study area.
- In 2020, approximately 21.5 million employed U.S. adults ages 18–64 had some form of disability, according to the CDC estimate.
- In 2024, private-industry employers reported 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in the United States.
- During 2023–2024, the median time away from work for private-industry DAFW cases was 8 days.
- During 2023–2024, private industry recorded 1.1 million job-transfer-or-restriction cases, representing 38.5% of DART cases.
Contents
- Key Workplace Disability Statistics
- Workplace Disability Employment, Participation and Unemployment Statistics
- Workplace Disability Statistics by Age, Race and Education
- Workplace Disability Data by Occupation and Industry
- Workplace Disability Prevalence Across Major Occupation Groups
- Workplace Disability Statistics on Absence, Restriction and Job Transfer
Workplace Disability Employment, Participation and Unemployment Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported its 2025 annual averages for the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. The estimates are 11-month averages because October data were not collected, so they are not strictly comparable with an ordinary full-year average.
| Measure, 2025 annual average | People with a disability | People with no disability |
|---|---|---|
| Labor-force participation rate | 24.8% | 68.0% |
| Employment-population ratio | 22.8% | 65.2% |
| Unemployment rate | 8.3% | 4.1% |
Source: People with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics News Release – 2025 A01 Results. The participation and employment comparisons reflect different age distributions and are not age-standardized.
- The 2025 disability population was 35.286 million people, including a civilian labor force of 8.755 million and 8.029 million employed people.
- A further 26.532 million people with a disability were not in the labor force. Not-in-labor-force status includes people who were neither employed nor unemployed.
- About 75% of people with a disability were not in the labor force in 2025, compared with about 32% of people with no disability; these are rounded narrative values.
- Among people with a disability ages 16–64, the employment-population ratio was 38.1% in 2025.
- Among people with a disability age 65 and over, the employment-population ratio was 7.8%; this is not a working-age-only population.
The unemployment rate uses the labor force as its denominator, so it does not describe all people with a disability. The BLS figures measure self-identified disability in the civilian noninstitutional population, a definition that differs from the CDC disability measures discussed below.
Workplace Disability Statistics by Age, Race and Education
Age and educational attainment are important context for interpreting employment statistics. In 2025, 17.408 million people with a disability were ages 16–64 and 17.878 million were age 65 or over.
- People with a disability ages 16–64 had a 41.8% labor-force participation rate in 2025, versus 8.3% for those age 65 and over.
- The unemployment rate was 8.8% for people with a disability ages 16–64 and 5.5% for those age 65 and over in 2025; each rate uses its age group’s labor force.
- Among people with no disability ages 16–64, the 2025 employment-population ratio was 74.8%.
- Among people with a disability age 25 and over, 24.8% had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2025, compared with about 42% of people with no disability; the rounded educational-attainment comparison is not an employment outcome.
| Educational attainment among people with a disability age 25+ | Employment-population ratio, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Without a high-school diploma | 55.0% |
| High-school graduate, no college | 62.4% |
| Some college or associate degree | 67.3% |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher | 73.8% |
Source: People with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics News Release – 2025 A01 Results. High-school graduates include equivalent credentials, and the bachelor’s-and-higher category includes master’s, professional and doctoral degrees.
Race and ethnicity differences also appear in the BLS unemployment data. In 2025, unemployment was 11.8% for Black people with a disability, 9.5% for Hispanic or Latino people, 7.3% for White people and 7.9% for Asian people; Hispanic or Latino people may be of any race under the CPS categories.
Workplace Disability Data by Occupation and Industry
Occupation shares describe the composition of employed people within each disability-status group. They are not disability prevalence rates within occupations.
| Occupation group | Workers with a disability | Workers with no disability |
|---|---|---|
| Management, professional and related | 37.5% | 43.9% |
| Service | 20.0% | 16.5% |
| Sales and office | 21.0% | 18.6% |
| Production, transportation and material moving | 13.8% | 12.0% |
| Natural resources, construction and maintenance | 7.7% | 9.0% |
Source: People with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics News Release – 2025 A01 Results. These are 2025 annual-average distributions among employed people age 16 and over.
More detailed 2025 occupation shares were 11.9% for office and administrative support, 4.0% for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, and 5.9% for food-preparation and serving occupations among employed people with a disability. The corresponding shares among employed people with no disability were 10.0%, 6.5% and 5.0%.
Industry and class-of-worker measures add another layer:
- In 2025, 97.9% of employed people with a disability worked in nonagricultural industries and 2.1% worked in agriculture and related industries.
- Private wage-and-salary workers represented 76.8% of employed people with a disability, compared with 80.7% of employed people with no disability.
These class-of-worker shares are not measures of job quality or accessibility. Likewise, industry shares describe the disability group rather than the prevalence of disability within each industry.
Workplace Disability Prevalence Across Major Occupation Groups
A CDC analysis using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) optional occupation module found that 14.8% of currently employed U.S. adults ages 18–64 in 35 states and Guam reported a disability during 2016–2020. The study did not provide a national all-state estimate because the optional module was not administered everywhere, and adjusted estimates accounted for age, sex, race and ethnicity, and education.
The CDC also estimated approximately 21.5 million employed U.S. adults ages 18–64 had some form of disability in 2020. In a broader noninstitutionalized population comparison, 38.4% of people with a disability ages 18–64 were employed, versus 75.8% of those without a disability.
| Major occupation group | Adjusted disability prevalence, 2016–2020 |
|---|---|
| Food preparation and serving | 19.9% |
| Personal care and service | 19.4% |
| Arts, design, entertainment, sports and media | 17.7% |
| Business and financial operations | 11.3% |
| Healthcare practitioners and technicians | 11.1% |
| Architecture and engineering | 11.0% |
Source: Prevalence of Disability by Occupation Group — United States, 2016–2020. These adjusted BRFSS estimates apply to currently employed adults ages 18–64 in the study states and Guam.
The disability questions also identify different types, which can overlap. Cognitive disability was the most frequently reported type among employed adults in the CDC study at 7.0%, while self-care disability was the least frequently reported at 1.0%.
Workplace Disability Statistics on Absence, Restriction and Job Transfer
BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) data measure employer-reported OSHA-recordable cases, not direct counts of people with long-term disabilities. In 2024, private-industry employers reported 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, down 3.1% from 2023.
- Illness cases fell 26.0% in private industry in 2024 to 148,000 cases.
- Respiratory illness cases fell 46.1% in 2024 to 54,000 cases.
- The total-recordable-case rate was 2.3 cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers in 2024, down from 2.4 in 2023.
- Private-industry injuries occurred at a rate of 2.2 cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers in 2024.
- The private-industry illness rate was 13.9 cases per 10,000 full-time-equivalent workers in 2024, down from 19.0 in 2023.
- The respiratory-illness rate was 5.1 cases per 10,000 full-time-equivalent workers in 2024, down from 9.5 in 2023.
Source: Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, 2023-2024. Incidence rates are not disability-prevalence measures.
For the biennial 2023–2024 period, DART combines days-away-from-work, job-transfer and job-restriction cases. The two components were:
| Case outcome, private industry | Cases | Share of DART or annualized rate |
|---|---|---|
| Days away from work | 1.8 million | 61.5% of DART cases |
| Job transfer or restriction | 1.1 million | 38.5% of DART cases |
| DAFW annualized incidence | — | 86.6 per 10,000 FTE workers |
| DJTR annualized incidence | — | 54.2 per 10,000 FTE workers |
Source: Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, 2023-2024. The rates are annualized over the two-year reference period; DAFW means days away from work and DJTR means days of job transfer or restriction.
The median time away from work for DAFW cases was 8 days during 2023–2024, while the median duration of job-transfer-or-restriction cases was 15 days. These medians apply to reported cases, not all workers with disabilities.
Event and exposure categories show what generated many DART cases during 2023–2024:
- Overexertion, repetitive motion and bodily conditions caused 946,290 DART cases.
- Contact incidents caused 860,050 DART cases.
- Exposure to harmful substances and environments produced 224,450 DART cases, of which 196,540 required at least one day away from work, or 87.6%.
- The annualized DAFW rate for novel-coronavirus cases was 5.6 per 10,000 FTE workers.
- Healthcare-support occupations had a 32.4-per-10,000-FTE annualized DAFW rate for novel-coronavirus cases, while healthcare-practitioner-and-technical occupations had a 26.7-per-10,000-FTE rate.
The coronavirus figures cover the new OIICS coronavirus category and are not equivalent to all respiratory illness or disability. More broadly, SOII outcomes describe work absence, restriction or transfer under BLS definitions rather than the prevalence of long-term disability.