UK – Employment and unemployment of disabled people are both up

The number of disabled people who are unemployed has risen for the second quarter in a row, according to new government figures.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) used the publication of quarterly labour market statistics to point to the growth of 225,000 in the number of disabled people in work, compared with the same period last year.

But DWP failed to point out that the number of unemployed disabled people had also risen, from 399,000 in October to December 2014, to 401,000 the following quarter, and now to 423,000 in April to June 2015.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures also show a large rise in the last quarter in the number of sick and disabled people described as “economically inactive” – those not in work and neither seeking nor available to work – from 3,313,000 to 3,399,000, an increase of 2.6 per cent in just three months.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Employment and unemployment of disabled people ‘are both rising’.