In the most recent Graduate Outcomes data, the employment gap between disabled graduates and graduates with no known disability was 3.4 per cent – for recent first-degree holders. Across the whole graduate population, the gap was close to ten percentage points higher.
On a first look, this suggests that the disability employment gap is closing over time, with recent graduates less affected than earlier graduates. This is positive news. Isn’t it?
It may not be this simple. Comparing recently published employment outcomes for disabled graduates with data on the national disabled graduate workforce poses important questions about the gap and how we can improve the longer-term lived career experiences and outcomes of disabled graduates.
This morning, the latest What happens next? report from AGCAS was co-launched with The disability employment gap for graduates research from Shaw Trust. AGCAS’s research demonstrates that, 15 months after the 2020–21 cohort graduated, the total disability employment gap was 3.4 per cent after a first degree, 4.5 per cent after a postgraduate taught degree and 2.2 per cent after a postgraduate research degree.
