Unemployment On Rise For People With Disabilities
More people with disabilities were without work in May, the Labor Department said Friday.
In the agency’s monthly employment report, federal officials indicated that unemployment grew to 12.9 percent for Americans with disabilities in May, up slightly from 12.5 percent the previous month.
The news comes as the nation saw its slowest job growth in a year, with just 69,000 jobs added to the economy last month. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for the general population remained relatively steady at 8.2 percent.
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The Labor Department began tracking employment among people with disabilities in October 2008. There is not yet enough data compiled to establish seasonal trends among this population, so statistics for this group are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on people with disabilities covers those over the age of 16 who do not live in institutions. The first employment report specific to this population was made available in February 2009. Now, reports are released monthly.
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