California Employment Rates

What this page shows us: The California employment rate of people with disabilities is far behind the employment rate for people without disabilities; and the employment rate for people with developmental disabilities is far behind the rate for people with all types of disabilities. The employment rates for the general population and people with disabilities have been going up since the recession. However, the employment rate for people with disabilities went down after the recession, until it started to go up again in 2013.

Table 1: Table of California Employment Rates, General Population vs. People with Any Disability vs. People with Developmental Disabilities.

Year	General Population1	People with Any Disability1	People with Developmental Disabilities2
2008	77.3%	37.2%	13.4%
2009	74.3%	34.2%	13.4%
2010	72.1%	32.3%	13.1%
2011	72.2%	31.9%	13.0%
2012	73.1%	32.2%	12.4%
2013	73.8%	32.8%	12.5%
2014	74.7%	33.5%	13.1%
2015	75.7%	33.9%	13.6%

Line Chart of California Employment Rate 2008-2015

1 The data is from the 2008-2015 Disability Status Report, California, by Cornell University, based on analysis of the US Census Bureau’s, American Community Survey (ACS), pages 32 for 2008, 31 for 2009-2015. The data reflects non-institutionalized working-age people (21-64) with/without disabilities working in California. The six types of disabilities included in the data are: sensory, physical, mental, self-care, go-outside-home, and employment.

2 The data is from the Employment Development Department (EDD). California EDD data reflects wages reported to EDD for the purpose of Unemployment Insurance reporting, a limitation of the data as some people have contract earnings that are unreported. End of Footnote

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