In September we worked with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) to publish the findings of our initial study into the disability employment gap in Scotland.
This blog looks at how the gap between disabled and able-bodied employment rates has changed since 2014 and finds that disabled people have lower employment rates in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, but the gap is closing more rapidly.
This initial research led us to ask the following questions: Why are the gaps closing so rapidly? Furthermore, what has changed for different groups of people with disabilities?
The full report published today models the reasons for this change and explores more detailed statistics on differences in employment by type of disability. Our work builds on DWP’s previous report which looked at changes in the employment gap for disabled people across the UK.
Key findings include:
The employment rate for disabled people in Scotland has increased by 9 percentage points since 2014. During this period, the employment rate for people without disabilities has also increased by 3 percentage points. Although employment rates remain low, the increase in employment rates in Scotland is larger than in the rest of the UK. The increase in employment rates is mainly due to an increase in disability prevalence (70% of the total change), and this change is mainly due to people becoming disabled in work. A small part of the change (10%) is due to changes in working patterns for disabled people. On average, the working-age population in Scotland with disabilities increased by about 4.6% per year between 2014 and 2022, while the overall working-age population in Scotland increased by less than 0.1%. More than half of the change in disability prevalence is due to increased reports of mental health-related disabilities and learning disabilities. In 2014, more than a third of disabled people in Scotland cited musculoskeletal problems as their main problem, and about a quarter cited a mental illness or learning disability. Now, these proportions have reversed. Employment rates for all disabilities have increased since 2014. Musculoskeletal disorders affecting the arms, legs, feet, neck and back have seen large increases in employment rates without a significant increase in disability prevalence. In comparison, reported rates of mental disorders have increased significantly in both employment rates and total prevalence, but changes in employment have outpaced changes in population size. People with disabilities are disproportionately less likely to work in manufacturing, professional occupations, scientific and technological activities and construction, and more likely to work in education, retail, health and social care.
Read the full report here.
Alison is a Research Fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute, specialising in health, socio-economic inequalities and labour market trends.
Christie is a Knowledge Exchange Associate at the Fraser of Allander Institute, working primarily on projects related to employment and inequality.