Utah ranks high among states for hiring people with disabilities

As the Utah economy expands, people with disabilities are benefitting by obtaining jobs not previously available to them, according to a report from RespectAbility, a national nonprofit organization that fights stigma and advances opportunity for people with disabilities. Utah now ranks seventh in the nation in hiring of people with disabilities. 

According to the website drivedisabilityemployment.org, 3,582 people with disabilities landed new employment in the state in 2016, the latest year for which complete data is available. In total, there are 159,024 working-age people with disabilities living in Utah and 74,767 of them have jobs, according to drivedisabilityemployment.org.  With a 47 percent employment rate for its people with disabilities, Utah now ranks higher than it has in several decades, RespectAbility said.

People with disabilities previously had been left out of the hiring equation during periods of economic growth, RespectAbility said in a release. Today’s workforce system is better aligned to enable people with disabilities to succeed.

In February, at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C., Utah Gov. Gary Herbert took questions about jobs for people with disabilities in Utah.  He responded, “I think people recognize that everybody has abilities. People can be productive if we find opportunities for them.”

Governors have a critical role to play as the economy grows and states advance opportunities for citizens with disabilities, the RespectAbility report said. The group cited former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell as a model of what a state chief executive can accomplish by making jobs for people with disabilities a key priority. As governor, he chaired national initiatives with both the National Governors Association and later, the Council on State Governments (CSG). Both the Better Bottom Line Initiative of the NGA and CSG’s Work Matters Report were focused on fighting stigmas, supporting strong public policies and using best practices at the state level.

A key finding in both reports was that people should look to major companies that have made a commitment to employing people with disabilities to see what is possible. Nationally, big-name businesses have been at the forefront of driving success and inclusion. Companies including JPMorgan Chase, Pepsi, UPS, SAP, EY, IBM, Starbucks and Walgreens have seen that people with disabilities are successful employees who improve businesses’ bottom lines. 

“Employment rates only tell part of the story,” said Philip Kahn-Pauli, policy and practices director at RespectAbility. “Educational attainment is critical to the success of youth with disabilities because the jobs of the future require technical education and skill training.” 

Nationally, 343,483 Americans with disabilities entered the competitive workforce in 2017. “Our nation was founded on the principle that anyone who works hard should be able to get ahead in life,” RespectAbility President Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi said. “People with disabilities deserve the opportunity to earn an income and achieve independence, just like anyone else.”