Adrian Lowe: Employment of Australians with a disability remains inexcusably low in a tight labour market

With near-half century lows in Australia’s unemployment, and some forecasts suggesting it could slide further, the lack of solutions beyond increased migration is perplexing. Particularly when they’re staring companies in the face. Employment of Australians with disabilities remains inexcusably low — the most recent data revealing the unemployment rate among people with a disability is 10 per cent, with those aged 15-24 more likely to be unemployed. There are 2.1 million Australians of working age with a disability. We need more workforce participation — and to support those who are employed to earn more. Seven in 10 people with disability who are employed earn less than $50,000 each year and about one-third earn less than $20,000. Countless benefits arise from greater workforce participation of people with disability, not the least of which is less requirements for disability support pensions from the public purse. Many with a disability who do collect a support pension would love to be able to work but systems fail to support them to do so. Disability employment experts recently told The West Australian that too many employers think having someone with a disability in their workplace is harder than it is. Given how desperately many companies need staff, it’s time they started thinking a little differently. With just a few changes to what’s accepted as the regular approach to recruiting and working, they could have access to a large recruitment pool with a strong chance of retaining successful candidates. Many companies like to promote their employment programs for those on the autism spectrum but while this is commendable it does two things: reinforces the pervasive view that someone on the spectrum can only work in technology, and suggests autism is the only “disability” that allows employment. Alarmingly, a study last December by WA-based disability employment provider APM found it takes 53 per cent of job seekers with a disability more than 12 months to find a job — compared to 14 per cent of working age Australians. University research and first-hand experience from recruitment companies shows retention of employees with disability can be up to 73 per cent higher than the rest of the workforce, and that they tend to be more reliable. Australia has decades of lost potential from not allowing people with disability to fully participate in the workforce. At a time when workers are desperately needed, let’s not waste more through a failure to think a little differently.