Disability employment will not simply reach pre-pandemic levels by mid-2022, but will well exceed them, according to new research by the Economic Innovation Group think tank. was found to have risen to A combination of remote work and a tight labor market explain this high rate, according to the analysis.
These findings demonstrate that providing accommodations for people with disabilities may not require the additional investment leaders previously thought necessary. In fact, these accommodations may not have much to do with anything other than full-time remote work.
A bit of history: Disability employment rates declined early in the pandemic, as did the rest of the labor market. However, they soon recovered. A person with a disability aged 25 to her 54, who is of prime working age, was 3.5 points more likely than she was to be employed in the second quarter of 2022 before the pandemic. What about individuals without disabilities? The odds of being hired are still 1.1 points lower.
This means that the labor market recovery for people with disabilities was significantly faster than for those without disabilities. We know that people with and without disabilities face similar market conditions. As such, remote work appears to provide a key differentiator in enabling workers with disabilities to be productive.
These statistics are consistent with long-standing expert opinion. For example, according to Thomas Foley, executive director of the National Disability Institute (NDI), workers with disabilities have been demanding to work remotely for decades before the pandemic, and it’s difficult for companies to say “no.” was consistently heard. During the pandemic, he said:
Due to the long-lasting effects of COVID, the benefits of remote work are especially relevant for people with disabilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about 19% of people with COVID developed long-term COVID. Recent Census Bureau data shows that 16 million working-age Americans suffer from it, with economic costs reaching her $3.7 trillion, according to recent estimates.
Indeed, many of these so-called long-distance drivers experience relatively mild symptoms (such as loss of sense of smell), which, while annoying, are not a hindrance. Others, however, experience symptoms severe enough to become disabled.
A recent survey by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank found that about a quarter of people with longer durations of COVID have changed their employment status or work hours. So COVID was severe enough to disrupt her 4 million jobs. For many, this interference was severe enough to be considered disabling.
In a recent study, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the number of people with disabilities in the United States has increased by 1.7 million. This increase is largely due to long-lasting COVID conditions such as brain fog, which means fatigue and poor concentration and memory, with 1.3 million people reporting an increase in brain fog since mid-2020.
Many have had to drop out of the workforce due to the intensity of COVID over the long term. Still, about 900,000 newly disabled people were able to continue working. Without remote work, they might not have.
In fact, the authors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York study say that, depending on the specifics of the condition, long-term COVID could be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. That means the law can require not only government agencies, but also private employers with 15 or more staff to make reasonable accommodations for long-term COVID residents. “Telework and flexible scheduling are two adaptations that are particularly beneficial for workers coping with fatigue and brain fog,” he said.
In an effort to adapt to the pandemic, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms has decided to offer its current employees and new job seekers fully remote work options. And according to Meta’s chief diversity officer, Maxine Williams, the candidates who accepted the remote positions were diverse, including people with disabilities, blacks, Hispanics, Alaska Natives, Native Americans, veterans, and women. The possibility of being from the community was “pretty high”. The numbers support these claims. From mid-2019 to mid-2022, Meta’s workforce disability increased from 4.7% for her to 6.2% for him.
I have consulted with 21 companies on their transition to hybrid work. The more my clients proved willing to offer remote work, the more disabled staff were recruited and retained. This includes employees with invisible disabilities, such as those who are immunocompromised. For example, he is hesitant to expose himself to the risk of contracting COVID by coming to the office.
Unfortunately, many leaders fail to recognize the benefits of remote work for underrepresented groups, such as people with disabilities. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon even claimed that returning to the office would promote diversity.
This opposition arises from a mental blind spot called intragroup bias. Our minds tend to like and pay attention to the concerns of people we perceive to be part of the “inside group.” Executives who do not recognize people with disabilities as part of their group are unaware of their concerns.
Add to this the empathy gap (the difficulty of empathizing with people who are not part of the group), and executives tend to ignore the feelings of employees with disabilities and prospective hires. In addition, omission bias (a dangerous error of judgment in perceiving that inaction is less problematic than action) can lead managers to trivialize their inability to support the needs and interests of people with disabilities. Recognize
Failure to empower people with disabilities can prove to be a huge loss in revenue for companies that do not offer remote work options. They’ve cut their talent pool by 15%, compromising their ability to recruit and retain diverse candidates. And, as their attorneys and HR say, they are in legal jeopardy because they may have violated his ADA.
In contrast, companies that offer remote work opportunities gain a competitive advantage by hiring underrepresented candidates and expanding their talent pool by 15%. We are reducing labor costs while increasing diversity. The future belongs to smart companies that provide the flexibility people with disabilities need.
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky helps executives use hybrid work to improve retention and productivity while reducing costs. He is the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts, a professional consulting firm on the future of work. He is a best-selling author of his seven books, including: Don’t rely on your gut: How pioneering leaders make the best decisions and avoid business disasters When Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A manual on benchmarking to best practices for competitive advantage. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox and over 15 years of academia as a cognitive scientist at UNC-Chapel Hill and Ohio State University.
Opinions expressed in commentary articles on Fortune.com are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of the authors. luck.
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