Employment
While 90% of people aged 15–64 with disability in the labour force are employed, others face challenges seeking and engaging in employment. This is reflected in their generally lower rates of labour force participation and employment, and higher rates of unemployment, compared with people without disability.
Labour force refers to the population aged 15 and over who are working or looking for work (ABS 2022). The results presented in this report and accompanying supplementary data tables are in most cases limited to those aged 15–64.
In the labour force:
people who are employed – people who reported they had worked in a job, business, or on a farm during the reference week (the full week before the date of their survey interview); or had a job in the reference week, but were not at work
Not in the labour force:
people who are unemployed – people who reported they were not employed during the reference week, and had actively looked for full- or part-time work at any time in the 4 weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week.
Requirements
- Employment is linked not only to income and economic security, but also to other aspects of wellbeing such as physical and mental health.
- Problems finding or keeping employment can, for example, have broader impacts on living conditions and opportunities for the individual, their family and the wider community (AIHW 2023).
