America's Hidden Workforce Returns

Many disabled Americans are joining or rejoining the U.S. workforce, thanks to a tight economy with an extremely low overall unemployment rate as companies in various industries contend with a shortage of available workers, reports the Wall Street Journal . The population of U.S. employees receiving federal disability benefits fell to 8.5 million in December from a peak of 9 million in 2014; the average monthly jobless rate for the handicapped was 8 percent last year, down 4.6 percentage points from 2014. Joblessness for the disabled also is declining faster than the broader population. In addition to the tight labor market, the increasing difficulty of accessing Social Security disability benefits has driven the growth in disabled employment. The latest Social Security data estimates that the percentage of applying workers whose disability claims were permitted following a medical review in 2016 fell to 48 percent. This marks the first time the rate fell below 50 percent on records dating to 1992, while allowances topped out at 62 percent in 2001. Another contributor is employers increasingly seeing a need for creative solutions to labor shortages. The larger employment pool has been an essential lifeline for disabled Americans who have been denied benefits at a higher rate in recent years.