Affiliations: [a]
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| [b]
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Michelle Maroto, University of Alberta, 6–23 HM Tory Building, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H4, Canada. E-mail: maroto@ualberta.ca.
Note: [1] In our writing we refer to both “people with disabilities” and “disabled people” to follow how different people with disabilities refer to themselves. Although person-first language has become more common within the social sciences and among researchers, many individuals within the disability community prefer to use identity-first language because it better demonstrates how disability is a political identity.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:With at least one-quarter of the U.S. adult population reporting one or more disabilities in 2020, people with disabilities represent a large and diverse group of individuals who often face significant barriers in the labor market, especially job displacement - involuntary job loss due to external factors. OBJECTIVE:We examine how rates of job displacement varied for people with different types of disabilities from 2007–2021, a period that includes the 2008 Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS:We use data from six waves of Current Population Study Displaced Worker Supplement (CPS DWS, N = 344,729) and a series of logistic regression models to examine differences in displacement by disability status and type. RESULTS:People with disabilities were approximately twice as likely as those without disabilities to experience job displacement, but more during times of economic turmoil. Although displacement disparities by disability status were decreasing from a high of 6.5 percentage points during the Great Recession, the pandemic increased the gap to 5.8 percentage points. CONCLUSION:Involuntary job loss among people with disabilities is exacerbated by exogenous shocks. We extend work on disability and displacement, incorporating the COVID-19 pandemic in our discussion of explanations of both labor market disadvantage and precarity.
Keywords: Disability studies, employment insecurity, COVID-19, economic recession, United States
