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How the pandemic helped close the employment gap for people with disabilities

Project SEARCH offers training to people with disabilities to help them get jobs with competitive wages. This photo shows a Project SEARCH participant at work.
Courtesy of Great Oaks Career Campuses
Project SEARCH offers training to people with disabilities to help them get jobs with competitive wages. This photo shows a Project SEARCH participant.

People with disabilities traditionally have much higher rates of unemployment than everyone else.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year urged employers to increase their potential hiring pools by “removing barriers to entering the workforce.” And people with disabilities are among the largest — if not the largest — minority group facing barriers.

But an analysis by the Economic Innovation Group found the COVID-19 pandemic and increased opportunities to work remotely helped push the employment rate for people with disabilities to its highest level since the Great Recession.

And in Greater Cincinnati, various organizations are working to help people with disabilities learn the skills they need to get and keep jobs.

On Cincinnati Edition, we discuss the labor market landscape for people with disabilities.

Guests:

  • Adam Ozimek, Ph.d., chief economist, Economic Innovation Group
  • Tim Richmond, Project SEARCH instructor, Great Oaks Career Campuses
  • Josh Weber, Project SEARCH graduate, Fifth Third Bank employee

Listen to Cincinnati Edition live at noon M-F. Audio for this segment will be uploaded after 4 p.m. ET.

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