May 8th, 2012

Share Everywhere

Meet-and-Greets for People With Disabilities Putting a Dent in Unemployment Rate

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Lackluster,” “meager,” and “disappointing” are just three adjectives used in headlines reporting on the unemployment report released by the U.S. Department of Labor last Friday. If you are an individual with a disability, however, you may be picking a different description. Because the unemployment rate for this subset of the population bucked the national trend, improving by nearly a full three points, according to Shaun Heasley’s report, “Job Growth Seen For People With Disabilities,” on Disability Scoop.

The unemployment rate of individuals with disabilities has been slowly increasing since last November, when it dropped below 13% for the first time since 2009. It reached another apex in February, hitting 15.8% before decreasing ever so slightly in March to 15.2%. But now the April report shows the rate taking another dramatic dip, down to 12.5% while the overall figures remained stagnant.

Vocational programs for people with disabilities may be having an impact on employment opportunities. As noted in Arizona Republic reporter Eugene Scott’s article about the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (SARRC), people with disabilities typically are the last hired and first fired; but SARRC is seeing success through providing career training for people with disabilities and preparing workplaces to successfully accept these people. Scott speaks with the organization’s employment coordinator, Erin Onacki, writing:

SARRC officials meet with companies to find out what they need from their employees and meet with job coaches to determine the skill set of a client… Preparing a company to hire an autistic adult is part of the process. ‘We offer an autism sensitivity training to the staff. It kind of empowers the employer partner to really take advantage of a person’s abilities vs. their disabilities,’ Onacki said.

Once an employer sees the success of hiring someone with disabilities it can open the door for others, as evidenced by Wanda Donald’s story on thebaynet.com about joining NAVAIR, a civilian logistics and contracts management company that supports air operations for the U.S. Navy. The Maryland native says she read inspiring stories from other individuals with disabilities on the NAVAIR website and then attended an arranged meeting putting people with disabilities in the same room with job recruiters. Donald offers these words of inspiration near the close of the article:

‘I think the best advice I could give any job seeker is that you only need one ‘yes,” Donald said. ‘I know after hearing so many no’s it can be discouraging, but I remember the one day someone said ‘yes’ to me, and I am working in the job of my dreams in a bad economy.’

Based on the latest jobs reports, more employers seem to be saying “yes” to people with disabilities when given the chance to meet them and learn what they can do.

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Image by lumaxart (Scott Maxwell), used under its Creative Commons license.

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