‘When we secure the rights of people with disabilities, we are investing in our common future’
COVID-19: Impact on the employment of persons with disabilities.
SW – 05/2020
On 6 May
2020, the European Commission presented its spring forecasts for the European
economy. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate is
expected to rise from 6.7% in 2019 to an estimated 9% in 2020. Certain groups
will find it particularly difficult during this time, such as young people who
are trying to enter the labour market and find their first job. Additionally, people
with disabilities could also be among the groups that will suffer due to difficult
labour market conditions.
Inequalities worsening
The
COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the inequalities often experienced by the world’s
one billion people with disabilities, said United Nations Secretary-General
António Guterres on launching the report ‘A Disability-Inclusive Response to COVID-19’
on 6 May 2020. According to Mr Guterres, those people who faced job exclusion
before the crisis are now more likely to lose their jobs or have greater
difficulty returning to work. Despite this, less than 30% of people with
significant disabilities have access to benefits.
Prioritising the right to employment
‘When we
secure the rights of people with disabilities, we are investing in our common
future’, emphasised the UN Secretary-General. He has called on governments to put
people with disabilities at the centre of efforts to respond to the COVID-19
pandemic.
This was
also one of the key messages at the online conference ‘Road to Employment for
Persons with Disabilities’ co-hosted by the European Association of Service
Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) and the Association for the
Social and Vocational Integration of People with Disabilities (LADAPT) on 4-5
May 2020.
The
employment of persons with disabilities must be a priority in the economic
response to COVID-19. Given the significant negative economic impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic, the conference participants stressed the importance of
upholding the right to employment for persons with disabilities and called for
greater support from the EU and Member States to help those furthest from the
labour market to find meaningful work.
Statistics
in the EU show that before COVID-19 only about 47% of people with disabilities
were employed, compared to 72% of people without disabilities (see also article from Jan 2020 on progress towards inclusive
labour markets). It is feared that this difference will widen further as a
result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emmanuelle Grange, Head of the Disability and
Inclusion Unit of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment,
Social Affairs and Inclusion confirmed that employment will remain a core topic
of the European Disability Strategy after 2020. James Crowe, President of
EASPD, called for the future European Disability Strategy to set clear and
meaningful targets for increasing the employment of people with disabilities in
the open labour market (click here for EASPD press release).
Opportunities from accelerated digitalisation
At the same
time, the German Economic Institute (IW) has published an article on the opportunities
created by the accelerated uptake of digitalisation as a result of the COVID 19
crisis. One consequence of the pandemic is that digitalisation is happening
faster in the German economy and society. For people with disabilities, this
could increase their chances of finding employment in the primary labour
market.
According
to the Information Service of the German
Economic Insitute,
a representative IW survey of human resources managers in 2019 revealed that
almost a third of German companies believe that digitalisation improves job
opportunities for people with disabilities. In the case of large companies with
more than 250 employees, the figure is almost 50%. Small and medium-sized
companies still have to do more; they need more information about the specifics
of hiring and training people with disabilities in order to reduce prejudice
and misinformation.