EmployAbility Industry Update | October 2023

By Maz Fenwick

Welcome to our first Industry Update!

I just wanted to quickly introduce myself as the Employer Engagement Manager for EmployAbility, where I work closely alongside employer partners to create meaningful and inclusive employment opportunities within their organisation for people living with physical disability and ensure they're on track to becoming inclusive workplaces.

With 13 years' experience in the Employment Services and DES space, my monthly round-up will hopefully shed some light on current labour market trends, provide insight into where employment opportunities lie, and offer some tips and tricks for improving disability-inclusion within your own organisation.

Current Labour Market Statistics (July 2022):

• Only 53% of working-age people living with disability are in the labour force (compared to 84% of those without disability).
• People living with disability have an unemployment rate of 10%, which is almost triple that of the unemployment rate for their able-bodied peers.
• 59% of working-age people with disability who are not in the labour force are permanently unable to work.

These statistics show that whilst there is participation in the labour force by people with physical disability, there is still a stark contrast compared to employment rates for individuals living without disability.

So how can we decrease these numbers? We're currently running a poll on our page it would be great to hear your thoughts here.

Projected Growth:

Employment in general is projected to rise in all broad industries over the next few years until November 2026.

Four service industries in particular are expected to provide more than three-fifths of the total projected growth, these being:

1. Health Care and Social Assistance
2. Accommodation and Food Servies
3. Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
4. Education and Training

More specifically, hospitality roles that fall within accommodation and food services are likely to see a significant boost following the government's injection of investment into tourism, as part their post-COVID economic recovery initiative.

For job seekers, this means a rise in vacancies in roles across the board.

For employers, this is a great opportunity to widen the talent pool and improve the accessibility of your vacancies to encourage people with disability to apply.

An ongoing partnership we have with IHG Hotels & Resorts has seen great success by doing just that:

"At IHG we’ve been focused on helping to connect more candidates with physical disability with our extraordinary world, and part of this has been forging new relationships to be able to connect with new candidate pools and join untapped talent to a future at IHG,” - Lynda Ugarte, Head of Human Resource Operations at IHG – Australasia & Japan.

Throughout this partnership we've not only been able to assist with IHG's approach to inclusive recruitment but have also offered guidance for ensuring improved on-site accessibility and creating a safe and comfortable work environment for employees with disability.

It's been amazing to see their passion and commitment to diversity and inclusion and to share our unique lived experience perspectives with their talent and management team to make a positive change within the industry.

You can find out more about our partnership with IHG over on our website ?? IHG Partnership - EmployAbility

If you, like IHG, are committed to disability-inclusion, feel free to drop me a message and I'd be more than happy to discuss how we can help!