2009 Progress Report on the Economic Well-Being of Working Age People with Disabilities (original) (raw)
Related papers
2001
A new and highly controversial literature argues that the employment of working-age people with disabilities fell dramatically relative to the rest of the working-age population in the 1990s. Some dismiss these results as fundamentally flawed because they come from a selfreported work limitation-based disability population that captures neither the actual population with disabilities nor its employment trends. In this paper, we examine the merits of these criticisms. We first consider some of the difficulties of defining and consistently measuring the population with disabilities. We then discuss how these measurement difficulties potentially bias empirical estimates of the prevalence of disability and of the employment behavior of those with disabilities. Having provided a context for our analysis, we use data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to compare the prevalence and employment rates across two empirical populations of those with disabilities: one defined by self-reported impairments and one defined by self-reported work limitations. We find that although traditional work limitation-based definitions underestimate the size of the broader population with health impairments, the employment trends in the populations defined by work limitations and impairments are not significantly different from one another over the 1980s and 1990s. We then show that the trends in employment observed for the NHIS population defined by self-reported work limitations are statistically similar to those found in the Current Population Survey (CPS). Based on this analysis, we argue that nationally representative employment-based data sets like the CPS can be used to monitor the employment trends of those with disabilities over the past two decades.
2008 Progress Report on the Economic Well-Being of Working Age People with Disabilities
2008
This progress report on the prevalence rate, employment, poverty, and household income of working-age people with disabilities (ages 21-64) uses data from the 2007 and earlier Current Population Surveys – Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASES, a.k.a. Annual Demographic Survey, Income Supplement, and March CPS). The CPS is the only data set that provides continuously-defined yearly information on the working-age
Self-reported work-limitation data: What they can and cannot tell US
Demography, 2002
Despite their widespread use in the literature, the Current Population Survey (CPS) and similar surveys have come under attack of late. We put the criticisms in perspective by systematically examining what the CPS data can and cannot be used for in disability research compared to the National Health Interview Survey. On the basis of our findings, we argue (1) that the CPS can be used to monitor trends in outcomes of those with disabilities and (2) that the dramatic decline in the employment of people with disabilities we describe in the CPS during the 1990s is not an artifact of the data.
Employment and Disability: Evidence from the 1996 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey
Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 2004
The relationship between employment and disability has gained national attention, as the ability to maintain employment is inconsistent among those with limitations. This cross-sectional study of employment among individuals (N = 1691, age 21-62 years) with self-reported limitations in the 1996 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey seeks to identify predictors of employment despite physical and/or cognitive limitations. Two predictive models of employment including 10 variables are explored; 1 included insurance (χ 2 = 3856.85, p ≤ 0.00) and the other removed the insurance variable (χ 2 = 280.21, p ≤ 0.00). Individuals with limitations who are employed are more likely to have a college-level education, have better physical and mental health perceptions and have private insurance. This analysis demonstrates that people do work despite reported activity, functional or sensory limitations and that socioeconomic factors are crucial in why someone is able to attain employment.