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Disabled Work
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), greater inclusion of people with disabilities in labour-management relations can help address skills shortages in the global labour market. Even in developed countries that have so far promised to support the employment of people with disabilities, the labour market participation of people with disabilities is on average a quarter lower than that of the general population, and unemployment rates are significantly higher than average. The ILO also notes that workers with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be self-employed as regular workers, which typically increases their risk of being excluded from national social protection systems.
People with some form of disability make up one-sixth of the world’s population (1.3 billion out of 8.2 billion), but still face discrimination in labour markets, including in developed countries, the ILO report says. “In diverse labour markets,” the organization says, noting that the gap between global labour demand and supply could widen further if people with disabilities are not included in the future workforce.
The ILO expects unemployment to rise slightly in 2024, from 5.1% in 2023 to 5.2%, with skilled labour shortages remaining a challenge in the global labour market. As global economic growth slows in 2022–23, the number of job openings in the labour market will fall slightly but remain higher than in any year in the past decade. There are still global labour shortages in manufacturing, construction, and information and communications technology. Employers in the aged care, retail, and transport sectors are also struggling to attract workers.
In such situations, the ILO believes that people with disabilities can be an additional source of necessary competencies. However, their participation in the labour market is currently still low. The labour force participation rate for this category is significantly lower than that of the general population.
The organization estimates that the gap is 25 percentage points globally, with the unemployment rate for people with disabilities being on average 7.5 points higher than the overall unemployment rate. At the same time, the researchers note that people with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be self-employed as regular workers, which generally increases their risk of being excluded from national social protection systems.
The ILO findings apply to Russia as a whole (not included in the study). Meanwhile, Russian employers have been regularly reporting labor shortages for the past two years. At the same time, Vladislav Bykhanov, a partner at the recruiting company Cornerstone, notes that even in such situations, no efforts are being made to actively recruit people with disabilities to work. “For most companies, this means increased costs for restoring jobs, many of which are unprepared, despite the ongoing increase in wage funds,” the expert says. A similar assessment of the situation was given by the operating director of the company “Ankor” Alexey Mironov, who also noted the lack of adequate support for the employment of people with disabilities in government agencies.
hh.ru expert Natalia Danina explains that several sectors of the Russian economy are already showing interest in people with disabilities.
IT companies have been leaders in hiring people with disabilities for two years now. They advertise almost a third of their vacancies. "The financial sector has also seen an increase in demand for people with disabilities (vacancies have almost doubled, ranking second in this indicator). Education, retail, and warehouse logistics are also among the leaders. "In most cases, people with disabilities are offered jobs as call center operators (every fourth vacancy has an "accessible" sign), packers and order pickers in warehouses, insurance agents, programmers, teachers, editors, proofreaders, and testers," explains Natalia Danina.
The number of people with disabilities in the Russian Federation currently stands at 12 million, about a third of whom said in a survey that they were ready to participate in the labor market (see Kommersant, September 9). At the same time, their employment rate has increased (from 15.9% in 2015 to 19.8% at the end of 2023), but is still several times lower than the same indicator for the entire population (over 60%). The unemployment rate among people with disabilities is six times higher than the overall unemployment rate (2.4%).