Labour market characteristics of persons with and without disabilities, 2024
Released: 2025-05-14
In 2024, the employment rate—the proportion of the population who are employed—fell by 0.7 percentage points to 46.4% among persons with disabilities, in a context where labour market tightness was generally easing across Canada. The employment rate also declined by 0.7 percentage points among persons without disabilities, dropping to 66.2%.
The unemployment rate rose for persons with disabilities (+0.5 percentage points to 8.1%) and for persons without disabilities (+1.0 percentage points to 5.6%) in 2024. The smaller increase for persons with disabilities reduced the unemployment rate gap between both groups from 3.0 percentage points in 2023 to 2.5 percentage points in 2024.
From 2023 to 2024, the employment rate declined 1.5 percentage points to 54.7% among persons with less severe disabilities, while it was little changed among persons with more severe disabilities (26.4%).
From year to year, the labour market characteristics of persons with disabilities are affected by changes in overall labour market conditions, as well as the persistence or reduction of barriers that limit their full integration into the labour market. The specific circumstances of persons with disabilities, including the type and severity of their disability, are also important factors that shape their experience in the labour market. For detailed analysis and insights on the labour market situation of persons in 2024, consult the article "Labour market characteristics of persons with and without disabilities, 2024," released today.
Notable drop in the employment rate of youth with disabilities
In 2024, a notable drop in the employment rate was recorded among youth aged 15 to 24 with disabilities (-6.9 percentage points to 45.0%), with declines observed among both young men (-7.7 percentage points to 39.7%) and young women (-6.5 percentage points to 49.2%).
The employment rate of youth without disabilities also fell from 2023 to 2024, but to a lesser extent (-1.9 percentage points to 55.8%).
Among persons with disabilities aged 25 to 54, the employment rate grew for women (+1.7 percentage points to 74.1%) but was little changed for men (73.9%).
Chart 1
Employment rate for persons with disabilities by age group, 2023 and 2024
The employment rate of persons with disabilities declines in four provinces
In 2024, the employment rate of persons with disabilities fell in four provinces, led by New Brunswick (-3.6 percentage points to 42.5%) and Prince Edward Island (-3.6 percentage points to 46.8%).
Conversely, the employment rate of persons with disabilities increased in Nova Scotia (+3.9 percentage points to 47.7%) and Saskatchewan (+2.1 percentage points to 51.5%).
In all provinces, persons without disabilities continued to have a higher employment rate than persons with disabilities, with the largest gaps observed in Quebec and Ontario (21.3 percentage points in each), and the smallest gaps observed in Nova Scotia (16.6 percentage points) and Alberta (16.8 percentage points).
The share of persons with disabilities working in professional, scientific and technical services grows
Workers with disabilities tend to be more concentrated in certain industries. Among paid employees with disabilities, the public sector accounted for 28.0% of employment in 2024, compared to 22.8% for those without disabilities.
Notably, compared with persons without disabilities, a higher proportion of persons with disabilities were working in health care and social assistance (15.7% vs. 13.1%) and public administration (7.6% vs. 5.6%)—two industries where most employees are in the public sector.
The share of workers with disabilities who work in the relatively high-paying industry of professional, scientific and technical services also increased in 2024 (+1.3 percentage points to 9.1%), but persons with disabilities remained less likely to work in this industry than persons without disabilities (10.3%).
Chart 2
Distribution of workers with and without disabilities by industry, 2024
Wage gap between employees with and without disabilities widened in 2024
Employees with disabilities tend to have lower wages than employees without disabilities. These differences stem from various factors, such as the industries in which the two groups are employed and the share of employees working full-time or part-time.
Due to slower wage growth among employees with disabilities (+4.6% to $33.42 per hour) compared to their peers without disabilities (+5.3% to $35.64 per hour), the gap in average hourly wages between both groups widened from $1.91 in 2023 to $2.22 in 2024.
Employees with disabilities are more likely to be unionized and to have access to medical or dental insurance
Despite having lower wages on average, employees with disabilities fared better in other aspects of quality of employment.
For example, in 2024, a higher share of employees with disabilities had access to paid sick leave (66.1% vs. 64.6% of employees without disabilities) and to medical or dental insurance (68.0% vs. 65.6%).
These differences may reflect in part the greater concentration of employees with disabilities in the public sector. Moreover, employees with disabilities (33.8%) remained more likely to be unionized than employees without disabilities (29.4%) in 2024.
Wider gap in the labour force participation rate of men with and without disabilities, compared with women
The labour force participation rate—the proportion of the population who are employed or unemployed—measures the extent to which persons with disabilities are participating in the labour market. A lower participation rate can signal the presence of barriers that may prevent persons with disabilities from engaging in paid work or job search activities.
Having a disability tended to have a larger impact on the participation rate of men. In 2024, slightly more than half of men with disabilities (51.6%) participated in the labour market, compared with three in four men without disabilities (74.6%)—a gap of 23.0 percentage points. The gap between the participation rates of women with disabilities (49.5%) and without disabilities (65.4%) was smaller (15.9 percentage points).
Youth with disabilities can also face barriers that make it more difficult for them to fully participate in the education system or the labour market. In 2024, they were twice as likely as their counterparts without disabilities to be not in employment, education or training (NEET) (24.4% vs. 12.3%).
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Note to readers
Today, a new data table on the employment characteristics of persons with and without disabilities is also released. The table, Employment characteristics for persons with and without disabilities, annual provides data for the first time on employment characteristics by industry and occupation.
Earlier this year, Statistics Canada released two other tables on the labour market characteristics of persons with disabilities. Both tables have been updated with 2024 data:
Labour market indicators for persons with and without disabilities, annual
Labour market indicators for persons with disabilities by disability type, annual
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Canadian Survey on Disability both collect data using the Disability Screening Questions (DSQ), which allows these surveys to identify 11 disability types and their severity.
For each type of disability (such as seeing, hearing, mobility), respondents report how much difficulty they have in completing certain activities and how frequently they experience limitations in doing so. Responses for all disability types are used to create a global severity score. Based on this score, respondents are assigned to a severity class—mild, moderate, severe, and very severe. To simplify the presentation of the results, these classes are further grouped into "less severe" (mild and moderate) and "more severe" (severe and very severe) disabilities.
For more information on how the severity of disabilities is derived, please see the report entitled A New Survey Measure of Disability: the Disability Screening Questions (DSQ).
The LFS program includes the regularly asked survey questions, as well as supplemental questionnaires on specialized topics each month, asked on a rotating basis. From 2014 to 2021, the DSQ were asked as part of the Canadian Income Survey (CIS), a supplemental survey to the LFS, for a partial period of each year. For the first time in 2022, the LFS program collected 12 months of data using the DSQ, through a combination of the CIS as well as the Labour Market and Socio-economic Indicators supplement.
For more information on the LFS, see the Guide to the Labour Force Survey (71-543-G).
All estimates reflect the situation of the population aged 15 years and older residing in the provinces, excluding people living on Indigenous reserves, full-time members of the regular armed forces and people living in institutions.
This analysis focuses on differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 68% confidence level.
Products
The article "Labour market characteristics of persons with and without disabilities, 2024," is now available online in the Labour Statistics at a Glance series (71-222-X).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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