| dc.description.abstract | People with disabilities (PWD) are half as likely to be employed than those without. In addition to disability, it is well established that demographic factors can also affect employment outcomes. Despite this, the interactions between disability and demographic factors have not been investigated. The question this study seeks to answer is: how does disability, together with demographic factors, affect employment status? This is done by first confirming that age, gender, education and disability affect employment. Next, we tested whether the effect of disability on employment is moderated by demographic factors. Finally, we tested whether demographic factors interacted with each other to impact the employment outcomes of PWD to reveal particularly disadvantaged subgroups in the PWD population. Data from the 2018 European Social Survey featuring 36015 responses from 20 countries was analyzed with chi square analyses and binomial logistic regression. Our results showed that disability, age, gender and education all affect employment outcomes. Significant interactions were found between gender and disability, age and disability, and education and disability. A small number of interactions effects between age and education were found to impact employment outcomes of PWD, but no particularly disadvantaged subgroups were revealed. By finding significant interaction effects, our study supports the notion of dynamic interplay between demographic group memberships. This has implications for both research and policy. In terms of policies, it suggests that employment policies that address disability and demographic factors individually in a ‘blanket’ way may not suffice. In terms of research, our results suggest that more attention should be paid to the interactions between demographic factors, rather than being considered and tested individually. | |
