Employment status transitions among young adults, with and without disability

Employment is a crucial avenue through which young people with disability can experience material wellbeing and social participation. While the low employment rates of young people with disability are well established, little is known about the stability of employment status - that is, the degree to which individuals remain in or move in and out of employment. This article uses longitudinal data from a large Australian national data set to investigate the transitions between full-time, part-time and non-employment for young people with and without disability. Considerable mobility was found between employment states for both young people with and without disability, with young people with disability more likely than their peers without disability to transition to reduced levels of employment and less likely to transition to increased levels of employment. Social background and contextual factors predicted employment for young people with disability; however, disability represented an additional penalty even after taking these factors into account. Findings suggest a need for social policy targeted specifically towards the barriers to maintaining and increasing employment experienced by young people with disability.