The Labour Market Participation and Employment of Disabled People in the UK

This paper represents the contribution by the Institute for Employment Studies to the first stage in a research project on disability and employment, supported by the Norwegian Work Research Institute through a contract from the Norwegian Research Council.

The research involves a comparison of disability in three contrasting sectors - construction, ICT and health - in three countries - Britain, the Netherlands and Norway.

In this first work package, we analyse secondary data sources (particularly the Labour Force Survey) to present a statistical overview of the labour market participation and employment of disabled people in the UK, also drawing where appropriate on relevant evidence from previous literature in the UK.

The main emphasis is on the overall national picture but, where data sources allow, we also present information on the position of disabled people in the three sectors.

The second work package, UK National Public Policy Initiatives and Regulations Affecting Disabled People's Labour Market Participation, has been published separately.