Unemployment figures; staggering as always

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So I saw some figures for unemployment on the spectrum

88% of people with aspergers are unemployed
98% of people with autism and unemployed

Do you think this is true and if not, what do you think the real figures are?

That sounds about right.

And 70% of people with any other major disability are unemployed too.

I recall seeing similar figures for the UK. I can't find the link I saw, though.

It does make me wonder a little if WP is a wildly non-representative sample of the ASD population, though.

Maybe "significant impairment" is most often interpreted as "can't work," and so the rate is high basically by definition. It's late, and I'm not sure if this thought makes sense, but maybe there are ASD people who can work, but are significantly impaired in every other way. IOW, they are ASD, but because they can work, are not assessed to have significant enough problems to be diagnosed & included in the stats, because employment may be over-prioritized by professionals.

Or, maybe not.

The sad reality is that all employers want to hire someone who does the job with the least amount of inconvenience to the employer.

Any disability poses a potential problem for an employer to deal with.

In a bad job market with an abundance of eligible candidates and not enough jobs, employers can't be forced to give the job to someone with a disability JUST BECAUSE that person has a disability, but the odds of anyone with a disability being "the best person" for the job is going to be slim enough as it is.

So, if you had no disability, you'd really have to shine to get noticed in an interview for a job. If you have a disability, you have to hope the employer doesn't really care about it...and that you outshine the competition. Otherwise, you likely won't get the job and can't be sure if your disability was the factor for why someone else was hired over you.

That's the one thing I did like about civil service-based jobs. If you did at test/exam and were scored on performance, you knew how you ranked in relation to other candidates. If you were #1 and someone else got hired, you knew that there was a reason you were passed over, and it could not have been that you were not the most qualified candidate.

Yeah I suspected that about wp too. Like half the people on here are undiagnosed only self-suspect aspies. You never know, perhaps half of wp pop is NT who don't have much confidence in there social skills. Or perhaps a lot of wp is also the more milder aspies. So milder aspies + NTs(arent actually aspie) = wildly non-rep sample of ASD pop.

Yes, it's true. Most people that claim they have Asperger's and have good jobs are self-diagnosing. I occasionally go to an Asperger's support group and the overwhelming majority of people there are not employed full time and most are on disability and unemployed.

I have to ask where are you getting these statistics from? How did they arrive at this data? Do they check some sort of registry to see all the people who are diagnosed, or do they just go out and do random sampling, asking people if they are on the spectrum or not and if they have a job or not?

I am employed, but part of that is just luck...our customers like tiny cute girls in tight dresses, even if they're awkward as Hell and like to quote Milton.

Do you know how autism is defined in this context? As in, does this include "High Functioning Autism" or does it really mean low functioning autism?

Indeed it's luck. A random adult in the population has a 70-90% chance of being an employable NT.

http://www.angelfire.com/amiga/aut/employment.html

I was wondering how accurate all of you thought this was.

Heres another stat

http://life-with-aspergers.blogspot.com ... yment.html

Says 23% unemployed. However 13% of the unemployed is voluntary. But then when looking into national unemployment figures, when they count unemployment, they include the voluntary ones too?

Who knows why the figure for voluntary unemployment is sooo high. I would guess some aspies dont want to work, some aspies cant work, some aspies mighta just gave up on looking for jobs. Does housewife or house husband count as unemployed?

That number seems high...88% of DIAGNOSED Aspies probably are.

There's Aspies working who don't know they have it...

Not surprising.

The more affected you are with AS, the more likely you are to not only get diagnosed early but the more likely you are to not be "high-functioning."

I'm unemployed. I've always had trouble with the educational and employment systems. When I had my one-week work experience placement at school, I could hear the permanent members of staff talking about me and how quiet and weird I was. My teacher came to see me halfway through the week (because I was known to be someone who struggled, though nobody mentioned Asperger's then) and said they always gave out goodie bags at the end of the week. I never got one. I have no doubt that it was because they just didn't like me and thought I didn't do anything properly. I thought I did okay, but I was in a shop and having to learn new things and specify things (you know how most people just seem to know what someone else means, but us lot always have to ask them to clarify? I think they got sick of me asking, and if I didn't ask I got it wrong) and talk to staff and talk to customers, it was too much for me. I was ill the whole week. I get turned down at interviews because I appear to be too quiet, not personable and chatty enough, or unable to handle the pressure. I finally got a job with someone I knew and I got fired from that because I kept taking sick days, because the stress of the job was too much for me. I don't think I can handle working. The people, the hours, taking instructions and not knowing what they're going to be (ie not knowing if today is going to be spent no the computers or on the phones or on the filing cabinets - I always need to know what I'm going to be doing on any given day, whether work-related or not, otherwise I get tired and sick) the lights, temperatures, having to wear skirts and heels, all of it. I feel so pathetic describing all the problems I have with it (after all, they don't sound like much, right? It's not like I'm being harassed or I'm driving a garbage truck or something that NTs would consider bad) but it's true.

The only reason I'm looking for a diagnosis is because of my problems with work. I don't have enough money. My boyfriend has basically told me he'll leave if I don't get a job. I need a qualified professional to explain to the world that my problems are real and I'm not just making it up. Otherwise, the social problems, sensory issues, etc - I can find enough information on how to deal with that at the library and on the internet. I've got this far by using them and I think I've got pretty good at analysing things like that and putting it to use. But work-wise, I don't think I can do it. If I ever am going to be able to do it, I'm going to need a lot of help, and in that time I'm still going to have bills to pay and I'm still going to have to explain to the people around me why I'm being so 'picky' and 'lazy.'

So I think there must be a lot of people with Asperger's or HFA who are working but undiagnosed and therefore wouldn't appear in the statistics. I'd imagine there are some, though not many, who don't want to work and are only able to get away with that because they also have a diagnosis that can get them benefits, as opposed to an NT who wouldn't want to work who'd have no choice because they have no other means of supporting themselves. I don't know. But the working undiagnosed population will definitely be true. I think a lot of adults only go for a diagnosis when they're having problems with something major in their lives, such as unemployment. Otherwise, a lot of people wouldn't bother.

Don't you think employed Aspies are less likely to go to support groups and un-employed Aspies or Aspies on disability are much more likely to go? I think your sample is highly schewed.

I mean if it's a support group - people who need less support are less likely to attend aren't they?