Megan Helsel, a specialist in kayaking wildlife, has her dream job and T’angelo Magee is heading in the direction of his commercial pilot. Both claim that their identity is centered on job. They are both handicapped.
According to information gathered by organisations working with the disabled, Americans with disabilities, physical and cognitive, have joined the workforce in latest months at a quicker rate than those without disabilities.
Labor Day on Sept. 2 may be the first time people with disabilities have regained an employment rate that was brought up by the Great Recession of 2008.
According to specialists on disabled employees, the benefits are the consequence of both technological improvements and workplace flexibility, which decreases traffic obstacles. The benefits, however, also represent a tight labor market pull.
With the U.S. unemployment rate at just 3.7 percent – approximately half a century low – employers have progressively looked at work candidates they often ignored in the first phases of what is now a record-long expansion of the economy.
“The recent uptick is basically ‘the full employment story’ – it makes firms look at other populations they haven’t previously considered,” Andrew Houtenville, an associate professor of economics at New Hampshire University, said.
Helsel worked on bird counts in her kayak and other U.S. wildlife initiatives. Agriculture Department in New Jersey in 2016, when a previously undetected tumor burst into its neck, leaving it paralyzed from the waist. When her doctor broke the news of her sudden life changing disability, Helsel was returning to work with the first issue involved.
“He said, ‘You’re probably never going to walk again.’ I asked, ‘When am I going to be able to kayak again?’” recalled Helsel, 32.
New technology has helped Helsel and other disabled individuals get into the payroll of an employer. Widespread applications include Venmo, which enables mobility-challenged employees to readily charge clients, and VoiceOver for iPhone, which enables visually impaired employees to do business.
More specific breakthroughs include wearing Helsel’s electronic-stimulating leg cuff instead of a bulkier brace that limits it to wearing sneakers. The cuff allows her to wear heat shoes through frigid winter waters necessary for kayaking.
According to the July Current Population Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Helsel is one of the approximately 15 million disabled Americans aged 16 to 64, accounting for about 7 percent of all working-age Americans.
According to national Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE), a monthly study published by the Kessler Foundation, a non-profit organisation, and the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, labor force involvement for working-age Americans with disabilities rose 6.5 percent in July from a year ago, compared to a 0.3 percent rise for working-age Americans without disabilities.
It is component of a two-year reinforcement of the labor market for disabled Americans, a rebound from the 2008 recession that wiped out jobs for disabled employees at a quicker pace than for disabled employees, said John O’Neill, Kessler Foundation’s director of work and disability studies.
In 2008, the employment rate for handicapped employees was 32.7% and in 2014 dropped to 24.1%.
While employees without disabilities have also experienced job losses, they have recovered pre-recession employment rates by June 2017 and are greater than ever, retaining momentum.
Disabled employees still have to achieve this milestone of recovery, although specialists say it’s in sight now.
According to the most latest nTIDE study, slow and steady growth began in 2015 and increased jobs to 31.2 percent last month. By Labor Day, the rate may again reach 32.7 percent, said UNH policy analyst Sarah Boege.
Whether this hard-won recovery can last through what some economists say is an imminent recession, however, is less evident.
Despite the rise in work rates for disabled employees, some employers have outdated concepts of disabled employees creating obstacles to work landing.
Magee, a heavy equipment operator paralyzed in a motorcycle accident from the chest, has been on 26 work interviews for roles like office administrator for a complicated building and front desk receptionist for a law firm over the previous six months.
“On the resume and on phone interviews, it’s like I’m the perfect candidate. Then when I get there and they see I’m in the wheelchair, everything changes,” said Magee, 32, who ended up in Hackensack, New Jersey, beginning his own mobile notary company.
His career goal is to pilot small aircraft for commercial U.S. travelers.
The veteran of the U.S. Army who this year is married with a 3-year-old daughter has been taught on an adaptive control aircraft. He was among ten learners chosen for the Able Flight program out of 27,000 candidates. Now he’s looking to gain his business license for comparable practice.
“In my wheelchair, I do a lot more than the average man on the street,” Magee said. “I’m definitely going to do it.”