Press release No. N 026 of 26 May 2020

WIESBADEN – People with disabilities are clearly underrepresented in the labour market. To coincide with the German Diversity Day on 26 May 2020, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that in 2017 the proportion of persons in employment and job-seekers among people with disabilities was less than half (30%) that among people without disabilities (65%).

Although part of the difference can be explained by the older age of people with disabilities, differences are also revealed in a comparison by age group. 70% of the people with disabilities aged 25 to 44 years were in employment or were looking for a job, whereas the proportion was 88% for people without disabilities of the same age. Also, people with disabilities aged between 25 and 44 years were more often unemployed. Their unemployment rate was 6%, while it was 4% among people without disabilities.

In the total of 10.2 million people with disabilities in private households, roughly 7.5 million were severely disabled. Three quarters of the people with disabilities (75%) were aged 55 or over. That high proportion is due to the fact that disabilities occur more often at an older age. The share of those aged 55 or over among people without disabilities was just under a third (32%).

People with disabilities have good opportunities in the service sector

The opportunities for people with disabilities to get a job are highest in public administration and in other services. 10% of the disabled people in employment worked in public administration and 30% in the service sector, whereas the shares of people without disabilities were 7% and 24%, respectively. Other services include, for instance, education and human health and social work activities.

Wholesale and retail trade, car repair shops, and accommodation and food service activities are the branches where it is most difficult for people with disabilities to find a job. Their proportion in those branches (14%) was by 3 percentage points under that of people without disabilities.

Small proportion of people with disabilities holding a higher education degree

Occupational disadvantages of the people with disabilities start as early as during the time of education and training. 27% of the people with disabilities aged between 30 and 44 years did not have a vocational qualification in 2017, while the relevant proportion of people without disabilities was 14%. The higher the degree or level of qualification, the smaller the proportion of the people with disabilities holding such a degree. This also means that more people with disabilities aged 30 to 44 years had completed their vocational training than people without disabilities in the same age group (54% and 49% respectively). By contrast, the proportion of people without disabilities holding a higher education degree was significantly higher than that of people with a handicap (18% and 6% respectively).

Methodological note:
The data refer to people with disabilities who live in households. The degree of disability is expressed in increments of ten (20 to 100). People whose degree of disability amounts to not less than 50 are considered severely disabled. People with a moderate disability are people whose degree of disability is below 50. Of the 10.2 million people with disabilities, not less than 7.5 million were severely disabled in 2017.