Why Hire People with Disabilities?

Human resource professionals are facing the tightest market in 40 years. Meanwhile, individuals with disabilities make up the largest minority in America--some 54 million. And two-thirds of this labor pool is untapped!

Tightest labor market in 40 years
An untapped labor pool
How to recruit individuals with disabilities

TIGHTEST LABOR MARKET IN 40 YEARS
If you're a human resource professional, we don't have to tell you how difficult it is to hire and maintain a strong labor force--no matter what kind of business you're in.

The expansion of the nation's labor supply is slowing to a virtual crawl, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• in the past 15 years, the available supply of labor has shrunk by one-half its previous size. In 1983, the U.S. unemployment rate was almost 11%. Today, it is less than 5%.
• over the past four years, the number of people who are working (or available for hire) has increased at the anemic rate of 1.1% a year, a pace that is expected to until at least 2006 --creating the tightest labor market in 40 years.

Companies in many industries report having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill available jobs. It's not just big business: a recent National Federal of Independent Businesses survey of small businesses found that 27% of employers reported difficulty in filling open positions.

At the same time, seasoned professionals--both managerial and technical--are aging and retiring faster than they can be replaced in many companies. All this, of course, is occurring in an atmosphere of economic boom and corporate expansion.

The primary reason? The baby-boom generation is nearing retirement age and there aren't enough younger workers to fill the gap. What that means is that business needs to look toward new labor markets to hire the people that they need.
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AN UNTAPPED LABOR POOL
People with disabilities represent such an untapped labor pool. In the general U.S. population, 54 million people, or approximately one in every six individuals has a disability. Yet though millions of people with disabilities work, two-thirds of this labor pool is still untapped.

It's not because they don't want to work::

• 60% of people with vision impairments in both eyes are either employed or seeking employment
• 80% of those who are deaf or hard of hearing are either employed or seeking employment.

What all of this means is that human resource professionals must be well equipped to deal with new recruits with disabilities as well as employees already in the workforce.

Which gets us to why we created this web site, ACCESS FOR ALL. You'll find lots of useful information here about the process of making accommodations for employees with disabilities and related management concerns.
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HOW TO RECRUIT INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES
If you'd like to explore recruiting individuals with disabilities, contact:

• your state or local state vocational rehabilitation agency (usually listed in the local yellow pages)
• community rehabilitation or supported-employment placement organizations for persons with disabilities
• the American Congress of Community Supports and Employment Services at 888-285-8889 (voice), http://accses.firminc.com and the Association of Persons in Supported Employment (APSE) at 804-278-9187 (voice), http://www.apse.org