I am about to break a promise I made to myself.
Long ago, I made a solemn vow (and sealed it with a pinkie swear) that I would never, ever, in a million years write anything about the federal government’s monthly jobs report.
Why? Because I firmly believe that nobody cares about the federal government’s monthly jobs report except for politicians, National Public Radio journalists, economists, and other wonks. Whenever one of these reports comes out, everyone goes on and on about how it shows how well or how poorly the economy is doing and the effect it will have on “consumer confidence.”
President Joe Biden is mystified, because he can’t figure out why polls show that voters aren’t exactly giddy about the current state and direction of the economy. Haven’t they heard the good news about all the bright and sunny job reports that have been coming out lately?
I don’t think most people of working age judge the economy according to that criteria. People who don’t have a decent job worry about finding one. Those who do have a decent job worry about keeping it. I’ve never met anyone who feels any better or worse about their employment prospects based upon what the jobs report says.
There isn’t a ton of “consumer confidence” out there because most people will always feel insecure when it comes to their employment status. That’s how capitalism works. If workers get too comfortable, they might start feeling like they have some agency, and the next thing you know they’ll be running around demanding higher wages and benefits and whatnot. For a capitalist to accomplish their goal of maximum profits, worker insecurity is a must.
Say what you will about Biden’s infrastructure projects or whatever. In his heart, he still believes in capitalism. And as long as he’s unwilling to challenge that system, he can’t do much to alleviate worker insecurity.
That’s why I try my best to ignore the job reports. I wouldn’t want to give them more credence than they deserve by making them seem more newsworthy than they actually are. But something that appeared in the final jobs report of 2023 has compelled me to say something about it. According to the report, the unemployment rate for workers with disabilities jumped in 2023 from an all-time low of 5 percent in December 2022 to 6.7 percent last December. That’s nearly twice as high as the unemployment rate for workers without disabilities (3.5 percent).
Some people find this baffling, too. But disabled folks that do figure out a way to land a job often don’t do so well, either. Other research shows that disabled workers face a big pay gap. In 2022, disabled workers earned 42 percent less than their counterparts without disabilities. That means they earn on average about $13,000 less annually. They are also 10 percent less likely to have received a pay raise over the past year, and 60 percent less likely to be able to save money each month.
So it’s no wonder that the same data also says that three out of ten workers with disabilities juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet, and 44 percent depend on at least three sources of income to get through each month, including earnings from multiple jobs and various benefits programs.
Then, of course, there’s the omnipresent factor of good old-fashioned job discrimination rearing its ugly head. According to the research, more than 30 percent of the disabled workers surveyed felt they had experienced disability discrimination on the job, and nearly 20 percent thought they unfairly lost a job because of their disability. The research determined that workers with disabilities face a 75 percent higher risk of unexpected job termination, and feel 40 percent less job security than workers without disabilities.
To me, all this once again shows how devotion to hardcore capitalism requires leaving a lot of people behind. The persistently high unemployment rate for disabled adults and the shabby treatment of a lot of disabled people who are employed reflects their value, or lack thereof, in a capitalist society.
Believe it or not, there have actually been, and still are, some Republicans who sincerely care about people with disabilities. A good example is the late Bob Dole, the former Senator from Kansas who was the Republican presidential nominee in 1996. He was one of the primary supporters of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Another good example is former President George H.W. Bush, who signed the ADA into law in 1990.
But Republicans who see themselves as allies of people with disabilities seem to view the struggle for economic equality for disabled folks as a quest to give us an equal chance to harvest the fruits of capitalism. They want us to have an equal opportunity to get out there in the workplace and compete. They don’t understand why the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is still so high, more than thirty years after the ADA became law.
The persistently high unemployment rate for disabled adults and the shabby treatment of a lot of disabled people who are employed reflects their value, or lack thereof, in a capitalist society.
But this doesn’t surprise me at all, for two reasons. First, having a job is a luxury for a lot of disabled people. There are too many other things that we need to take care of first. Like everybody else, we need stable housing. But if you think it’s difficult to find affordable housing, try finding something that’s both affordable and accessible. The options are meager.
And even if a disabled person manages to find a decent place to live, they may still need the assistance of others to help them do all the routine things everybody has to do every day, such as getting out of bed and getting dressed. I’ve hired a crew of people to assist me in my home. Someone comes into my home every morning to help me get out of bed and get set up for the day, and someone else comes in at night to help me go to bed. Others come in during the day to help me do other things. They are paid an hourly wage to assist me via a state program that is largely funded by Medicaid. So using this essential service doesn’t cost me anything, besides some of my tax dollars.
But the availability and scope of support programs like this one varies widely from state to state, so there are still a lot of disabled folks who need help like I do but can’t get it.
In order for a disabled person to be able to even think about holding down a steady job, the proper infrastructure must also be in place. There must be accessible transportation, accessible buildings, sidewalks, and more so that this person can get to and from the workplace. Some jobs require a certain amount of education or training, so those opportunities must also be available.
Because these obstacles are still too common, one of the last positive changes I expect the ADA to help bring about is an improvement in the employment rate of disabled people.
The other reason I’m not surprised that the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is so high is that I think our capitalist system has made about as much room as it is going to make for disabled people.
A lot of good people work hard every day trying to help disabled folks find jobs. I often hear them try to convince employers that hiring from the disabled community is good for business because research shows that we are the most loyal employees. We may indeed be more loyal, motivated, and hardworking than the average worker, but I don’t like to use that sales pitch, because I think it’s like telling employers that hiring the disabled is good for business because we’re desperate. We’re so grateful to have any job that we’re much less likely to do anything that might risk losing it, like calling in sick, asking for a raise, or attempting to unionize.
I don’t believe that hiring the disabled is a good way to make quick profits.
To the contrary, I believe that when it comes to traditional employment, many disabled folks will always be square pegs that will never fit into round holes. Even if the playing field were even, many disabled folks don’t have the ability or energy to toil for forty or more hours a week and commute to and from the office every day.
The employment prospects of disabled people won’t improve much until there is a historic transformation. Cultivating the talents we all have must be valued above the freedom to make quick and limitless profits.