People with disability are an untapped workforce that could help solve Australia’s workforce shortages

Kathryn Mills, Community Engagement Lead, Jigsaw Australia (Adelaide)

Data released last month by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirmed Australia’s unemployment rate had fallen to 3.5 per cent – the lowest rate recorded since August 1974. However, while high job availability can be good news for individuals, it is causing widespread problems for employers and the economy – leading to workforce shortages and stagnated growth.

As someone with a disability, and as a disability advocate, I am frustrated to see that – despite the nation’s desperate need for workers – employment rates amongst people with disability are not improving. Indeed, Australia’s rate of employment for people with disability is one of the worst of the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

According to the ABS, in 2020 there were 113,000 people with disability in Australia actively looking for work, and the current Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has said that improving their inclusion in the workforce could ensure essential jobs are filled and contribute an extra $50 billion to Australia’s economy by 2050.

I lead community engagement in Adelaide for Jigsaw Australia, a social enterprise that trains and transitions people with disability into open employment. We recently commissioned a YouGov poll of more than 500 Australian managers and human resources professionals to examine why employers are not harnessing the skills and talents of people with disability to solve their workforce woes.

It turns out that half of all managers have never hired – or worked with – a person with disability. Sadly, this will not come as a surprise to many people with lived experience.

However, our poll also showed that attitudes are changing. Many employers agreed that increasing inclusion was important and would bring benefit to their workforce – but said they didn’t know how or where to start.

Of those who had hired a person with disability through Disability Employment Services (DES), 91 per cent had experienced challenges with using DES for the process. Their feedback was the same as that which Jigsaw hears from many people with disability looking for work – that DES had placed someone into a role that wasn’t a good fit for them and didn’t offer enough support.

Jigsaw is an end-to-end pathway to employment, taking school leavers with disability through training in core work skills and paid employment experience, and transitioning them to an award wage, mainstream job.

We developed our model together with our community, focusing on soft skills and direct, paid experience within a workplace to best position people successfully for work. Earlier this year, we opened our fourth hub in Adelaide’s CBD.

In my role, I engage daily with people with disability who are targeting employment, and I hear their stories – stories like Bradly’s.

A 30-year-old trainee at Jigsaw, Bradly has always wanted to work, but until recently he has only been able to access day programs – despite leaving school 11 years ago. Bradly’s legal guardian believes his blindness has been an ‘issue’ for many employment programs, and sadly, his story is not uncommon.

As a person with a disability, I know all too well the discrimination that exists, and the lack of opportunities there are for people with disability in the workforce. I’m passionate about making a change for our community so that everyone with a disability has the right to work on an equal basis with others – and in a work environment that is supportive and inclusive.

Now, in this post-COVID era of supply chain issues and workforce shortages, not only are inclusion and empowerment in the workplace essential to the rights and wellbeing of people with disability, but they have also become an economic necessity.

Jigsaw Australia has hubs in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide and is welcoming people with disability targeting mainstream employment now.