Research summary: Older workers with disabilities

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Why this study

This project investigated barriers faced by older workers with disabilities when finding work. We examined how age and disability affect workers' ability to find employment. The study also compared these workers with those without disabilities, examining:

• ability to find work
• how much they work, and
• how much they earn

This study could help guide specific employment programs for older workers with disabilities, including:

• training programs to develop new skills, or
• update existing ones

What we did

This project used the 2022 and 2017 Canadian Surveys on Disability, the Census 2021, and other sources of data. It focused on workers with disabilities aged 50 to 74 years and compared them to people without disabilities in the same age group. A gender-based analysis was performed where possible.

What we found

The study found that the following factors affected people's ability to find work:

• age
• gender
• lower levels of education
• severe disabilities, and
• general health

The following labour market factors also affected people's ability to find work:

• they influenced whether individuals looked for work
• people with a high school education or less were less likely to work
• women had lower employment levels than men, even at equal levels of education; they were also more likely to be retired
• workplace accommodation were often not enough for the needs of those with more severe or multiple disabilities
• some employers, like small firms, may lack resources to accommodate those with more severe disabilities

What it means

Several initiatives could be designed to support older workers with disabilities in their efforts to enter the work force:

• subsidies for the recruitment of workers with high education but more severe disabilities would help encourage employers to hire them. Helping employers cover the costs of accommodating these workers in small and medium size firms may also be effective
• further research is needed to understand why workers with disabilities, earn less compared to people without disabilities regardless of education. This is especially the case for women
• advances in computing technologies and artificial intelligence can provide considerable help to workers with disabilities. Instructional programs that train these workers to use these new technologies can have a significant impact on their performance

Contact us

For access to the full report, please contact us using the email address below.

Skills and Employment Branch, Labour Market Information Directorate, Policy Research Analysis and Geomatics Division

Email: esdc.nc.sspb.research-recherche.dgpss.cn.edsc@esdc-edsc.gc.ca