Jobs data showed small declines in unemployment for people with and without disabilities in April, according to Friday’s National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) COVID Update. The April data also showed that the number of workers still on temporary layoff remained relatively unchanged, which may reflect persistent delays in the supply chain, according to nTIDE expert Andrew Houtenville, Ph.D., professor of economics at the University of Hampshire (UNH) and research director of the UNH Institute on Disability.

“Over the past four months, the number of unemployed has been relatively steady for people with disabilities, hovering around 590,000, compared with 460,000 prior to the pandemic,” said Dr. Houtenville. “In our May 6 nTIDE, we reported a similar trend for their labor force participation rate, also suggesting there’s not a lot of movement for people with disabilities.” Unemployment for people without disabilities has shown a slow but steady decline over the past two years. “We see greater variability in the data for people with disabilities,” he noted, “which relates to their smaller sample size.”

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